A turnover-plagued outing condemned them to a fourth loss in a row in Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa yesterday in Wellington.
The Tokomanawa Queens took full advantage of the lack of ball security, winning 87-60.
Hoiho’s shooting was their downfall in the past two outings.
Their 44% from the field — which included 6-of-21 from deep — was a big improvement.
They looked inside and, particularly early on, found success in hitting Laina Snyder and Shelby Cheslek in the post.
The American duo had 19 and 11 points respectively, the former on an efficient 8-of-12 from the field.
That helped the Hoiho to a 23-19 lead early in the second quarter, as Samara Gallaher also showed some nice touches to both score and create.
However, the passes inside began to become scripted and the Queens’ defence lifted.
The Hoiho had 26 turnovers in the finish, the Queens converting those into 31 points.
The hosts did not shoot that much better than the Hoiho, but the turnovers meant they put up 74 shots to the Hoiho’s 57 — which was always going to make it difficult.
Back-to-back three-pointers to highly touted Argentinian youngster Florencia Chagas put the Queens up 32-26.
It sparked a run which led them to a 42-32 halftime lead and, while a Snyder three-pointer pulled that back in to start the second half, the Hoiho could not stem the flow.
They managed just nine third-quarter points, as the Queens ran rampant and extended the lead to 64-41.
The quartet of Chagas, Stella Beck, Elin Gustavsson and Jaime Nared did the damage.
Each had between 14 and 19 points, Nared top-scoring with 19, to go with eight rebounds and five assists.
The Hoiho had their best offensive quarter in the fourth, managing 19 points as Tori Dugan put in eight herself.
But the poor third quarter had left them far too much to do.
The Queens extended the lead to 30 midway through the fourth, before a late triple from Olivia O’Neill reducing the final deficit to 27.
In the other game of the weekend, the Northern Kahu beat a depleted Mainland Pouakai team 76-69, remaining unbeaten with three wins.
Tahlia Tupaea continued her top form with 24 points, while Trinity Baptiste had 28 points for a Pouakai team missing Mary Goulding and Ella Fotu to the Tall Ferns 3×3 team.
