The Parramatta Basketball Association lost both of its games against the visiting Sutherland Sharks on Saturday night at the Auburn Basketball Centre, in round 17 of the 2012 Waratah Championship League (WCL) competition.
The first game of the night saw the Parramatta women fall 62-52 to the Sharks but recorded their highest score of the season by keeping the difference to their smallest losing margin.
Parramatta head coach Merve Tait said: "we work really hard at training and the improvement shows the girls are listening".
Many of Parramatta's rookies had never played representative basketball prior to this season and coach Tait has done an extraordinary job in getting the team competitive against seasoned opponents.
The Parramatta men's team was in trouble before the opening tip-off, with star Wildcats centre Goran Veg missing the game to be with his expectant partner.
Sharks head coach Pete Rayner instructed his team to ''go after'' the Wildcats early and his players responded beautifully, racing to a 28-11 lead in the first term and 51-30 at half-time.
The visitors withstood all Parramatta's efforts to reduce the margin, leading 71-54 at the end of the third quarter and eventually winning 93-75.
Coach Tait said: "We were rubbish in the first half".
"Our defence was poor and we just didn't adjust to the loss of Goran (Veg)".
"We let them score inside and whenever we stopped them there, they just moved the ball out and scored from the perimeter".
The Wildcats men have an arduous weekend ahead of them for round 18, playing the Maitland Mustangs in Maitland on Saturday night, then returning home to play the Hills District Hornets on Sunday afternoon at the Hills Basketball Stadium.
The Parramatta women have a bye round.
WOMEN: Sutherland Sharks 62 def Parramatta Wildcats 52 (Emma Bramston 16 points, Bernadette Makhlouf 10, Laura Anderson 8 points, 8 boards)
MEN: Sutherland Sharks 93 (Cameron Stewart 29 points) def Parramatta Wildcats 75 (Rory Sutton 20 points, 9 boards; Jamie Newth 13 points; Adi Causevic 12).