Regroup and go extra hard tonight.

That's the message from Taranaki Mountain Airs coach David Bublitz after his side crashed to a 92-88 loss against the Otago Nuggets in a National Basketball League match in Dunedin last night.

"If we don't win against Southland in Invercargill, that's our season gone," Bublitz said.

"We came down here hoping to win two games. If we can win one out of two that's acceptable, but we've made it hard for ourselves."

Bublitz was fuming about two late calls that cost his side dearly.

"Even though we were down by four at halftime, I never thought we were out of it. But late in the game there were two terrible calls by the ref, one in particular. He called an intentional on [captain Aaron Bailey-Nowell]. They sunk the two free-throws and got the ball back again and scored. After that, we were chasing our tails."

While the calls went against Taranaki, Bublitz said his side didn't shoot the ball well.

"We outbounded them, put up more shots than them ... 80 to their 65 ... but let ourselves down with our shooting, especially from the free-throw line," he said. "They managed 15 from 19 (79 per cent) while we shot only five from 15 (33 per cent). Those 10 points hurt us."

Taranaki's two imports – Jack Leasure and Marcus Campbell – both had solid games.

Leasure scored a game-high 30, including five from nine from outside the arc. He also pulled down seven rebounds, a tally matched by Bailey-Nowell.

Campbell scored 24 points, shooting 12 from 16 attempts as well as grabbing six rebounds.

Otago's two big men, Craig Bradshaw and import Lance Allred, were unstoppable in the first half, with Bradshaw scoring 16 of his 24 points in that period and Allred 12 of his 18.

"We'd scouted them and they hadn't been scoring a lot from the outside. Craig made five three-pointers and that hurt us. They were both super-efficient in the first half," Bublitz said.

In the other game last night, the Bay Hawks stormed back in the fourth quarter to pip the Wellington Saints 100-99 in Wellington.

The two sides were locked 25-25 after the first quarter, with the Hawks ahead 54-53 at halftime. The third quarter went to the Saints 28-19, with the Hawks taking the fourth 27-18.

OTAGO NUGGETS 92 (Craig Bradshaw 24, Scott O'Gallagher 23, Lance Allred 18, Mark Morrison 11, Sam To'omata 10) TARANAKI MOUNTAIN AIRS 88 (Jack Leasure 30, Marcus Campbell 24, Aaron Bailey-Nowell 11, Zane Meehl 10). Halftime, Otago 47-43.

BAY HAWKS 100 (Galen Young 25, Josh Pace 21, Paora Winitana 15, Arthur Trousdell 13) WELLINGTON SAINTS 99 (Corey Webster 20, Casey Frank 20, Troy McLean 14, Lindsay Tait 13, Kareem Johnson 12, Erron Maxey 10). Halftime, Bay Hawks 54-53.