The Otago Nuggets completed a miserable comeback year with a meek and ineffectual display against the Hawkes Bay Hawks at the Edgar Centre on Saturday night.
The visitors dictated the terms, potting three-pointers with consummate ease and strolling to the basket virtually unimpeded, racking up 114 points on their way to a 31-point win.
The rout capped a winless season for the Nuggets.
They join the 1998 Northland Suns and the 2009 Taranaki Dynamos as the only teams in the history of the NBL to go through a season without registering a win.
The Nuggets accepted their fate perhaps too comfortably, like defeat was an old friend.
There was no passion.
No-one slumped to their knees.
No-one held their head in their hands.
No-one stormed from the court.
It was just another loss.
Where to now for the franchise? Clearly the experiment to field a largely amateur team in a semiprofessional league has been a resounding failure, and it is hard to imagine the Nuggets' programme has gained any traction.
Coach Alf Arlidge is an upbeat character who has taken defeat with good grace.
That is not to say he has not yelled himself hoarse from the sideline, because he has.
But he is also a realist.
The Nuggets were always going to struggle in what has unashamedly been a rebuilding year after a year's absence from the league.
"As I said at the start, we'll make two steps forward and one back. But we're getting there. It is just there are a couple of pieces missing from the jigsaw," Arlidge acknowledged.
"We need to sit down in the next month and decide where we need to go as a franchise.
"We've tried it this way and, unfortunately, being out for a year has hurt us a lot.
We've got 18, 19 and 20-year-old kids left trying to do things instead of guys who are 25 or 26."
The franchise needs to do a better job of putting some experienced players around the team.
From Arlidge's point of view, that means recruiting a couple of forwards, another guard plus two Americans.
A roster like that will not come cheap.
Money will have to be found.
Goodwill and a shoestring budget will only get the Nuggets so far.
The franchise has just three paid players on the roster, with the rest playing for "Jimmy's pies", and that includes Arlidge.
But the rookie coach is keen to return for another stint.
"Personally, it probably took me half the season to get up to speed. I guess I'll sit down with the management group and decide what I want to do. But when I signed up I signed up for three years and I want to see where we can go."
While the season has been disappointing, Arlidge believes the "Baby Nuggets" have developed and "two or three years down the track" will be very useful players.
Captain Sam To'omata made the biggest strides this season.
He kept trying when others threw in the towel and had a solid game on Saturday, scoring 12 points.
American forward John Barber jun rounded out a disappointing season with another underwhelming performance.
Fellow American Tyler Amaya finished strongly, with 29 points, five rebounds and six assists.
He had a quiet patch during the middle part of the season and had nights when he struggled to find his range.
But he had to carry a very limp offence.
For the Hawks, Chris Daniel had a night to remember.
He drilled six three-pointers from six attempts and was eight-of-eight from the floor in a 23-point haul.
Ben Hill hit five three-pointers and Everard Bartlett made four of his five three-point attempts.
Amazingly, the Hawks landed 60% of their three-pointers.
Their accuracy was down to some superb execution and a lack of defensive pressure.
