They got shredded in their opening game of the Tauihi league.
Marena Whittle torched them for 30 points, dropping in eight of her nine three-point attempts to lead the Mainland Pouākai to a colossal 121-83 win in Christchurch last Friday.
The Hoiho were competitive in the first half but dropped off in the final two quarters.
Coach Todd Marshall was clear in his mind where it went wrong — defence.
The Hoiho need to get out to the perimeter and put more pressure on the shooters when they play the Whai in Tauranga at 7.30 tonight.
"[Whittle] was shooting well regardless of what we did." Marshall said.
"But we didn’t do things well. I mean, it probably showed it was our first hit-out."
The Hoiho had only eight sessions together before their season opener and their one-on-one defence needed to be a lot stronger "because the perimeter game in the league now is so strong that they’re going to get kick-outs".
"And there’s a good chance they’re going to drain those shots. And multiple threes are really hard to catch up on."
Marshall felt the effort was there, but they "weren’t smart enough".
"We’ve been working on staying located on our players on the perimeter.
"But we’re going to have to just let that game go and move on now."
The Hoiho play the Whai tonight and the Northern Kāhu on Sunday afternoon.
The Whai suffered an 84-78 loss to the Tokomanawa Queens in Tauranga on Saturday.
But they have plenty of firepower.
Hannah Hank will be a threat on the post. She scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
Laina Snyder and Mikayla Cowling are scoring threats as well. Cowling collected a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds against the Queens. She also made six assists, while Tayla Dalton contributed 10 points from the bench.
The Hoiho got great service from Claire Jacobs. She drained 27 points and Paige Bradley was her usual busy self, knocking down 10 points and making seven assists.
Lillian Dart made a positive impression from the bench. She slotted 18 points, nabbed four steals and had five assists.
"Claire showed us a little glimpse of what she’s capable of. And I believe I’ve got some other players on the court that can step up to make it harder on defence, so they can’t just worry about Claire.
"So that’s what our objective is, to get our team gelling and making contributions across the board, really."
