The Southern Steel coach was gutted after they came up short 55-54 against the Northern Mystics in Dunedin earlier this week.
"Losing’s not fun and we need to remember this feeling for the rest of the season because it really hurts, hurts the heart," Frew said.
"If we want to be competitive and be in that top three in July, we can’t afford to get too many losses on the board.
"Good to get the bonus point, but it’s a game that we were in the hunt to get the three points and they’re pretty crucial."
They came back from being six points down at the start of the fourth quarter against the ANZ Premiership defending champions and went on a run to pull back the score.
But costly turnovers in the final minutes of the game, and their inability to fully execute under pressure, hurt them.
With a condensed season of only 10 games before the playoffs, Frew was frank in saying her team needed to bounce back fast.
"It really makes you have to perform early on, and we haven’t done that.
"We’re two losses and one win now — that’s disappointing."
The Steel opened the season with a 57-50 loss to the Mainland Tactix but were superb in their 69-41 win against the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic in round two.
Frew felt her team were building nicely into the season, but they did not have much time to muck around.
"Now it’s up to us to keep looking at the opposition and if we need to adapt on the court, adapt where we need to.
"At times we just were kind of stuck in our ways.
"In saying that, the girls put everything into it so I am proud of them."
New Zealand under-21 players Serina Daunakamakama and new recruit Khanye’-Lii Munro-Nonoa have been calm heads and stepped up for the Steel through injury, proof their is more depth this season.
"We’ve got a lot of young girls and, I guess as coaches, we’re putting a lot of pressure on them to perform," Frew said.
"We are really proud of them.
"There’s so much potential in this group and we just need to keep executing those key moments and being adaptable on the court, so we’re really competitive and we push on and get those wins."
They get another shot against the Central Pulse in Invercargill on Sunday.
