Tauranga's basketball team The Whai are preparing to take on the Tokomanawa Queens this weekend.

The two teams will go head-to-head on Sunday, August 7, at the Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre in Tauranga.

The home team will be hoping for a win, following back-to-back loses to top of the table, Kahu.

The Whai and Kahu meet each other for the second time on July 31.

Speaking to SunLive ahead of that game, The Whai director of basketball Alex Stojkovic says he they

The game started a frenetic pace with numerous interceptions and rebounds. The first quarter ended with Kahu leading 22-13.

Matangiroa Flavell was back from injury and, although not a high scorer for The Whai, provided excellent support defensively.

The second quarter ended with Kahu leading 36-32 and The Whai have capitalised on interceptions from excellent defence.

Although The Whai have created numerous rebounds, the ball is repeatedly turned over to the Kahu after the shot clock ran out.

The third quarter ended with Kahu leading 57-46.

Mcaela Cocks and Tahlia Tupaea from Kahu proved deadly with minimal space to shoot and both executed three-pointers with ease.

Sunday's game ended with the Kahu winning by 24 points, the final score Kahu 88 and The Whai 64.

Despite the loss, The Whai captain Kyra Lambert remains positives about the encounter.

'Yeah, I thought we fought for 40 minutes but credit to their team they played a great game.

'Where we go from here – we just see what we can build on and just continue to get better from here and learn from the hard lessons.

'Honestly although they scored 88 points, I think our defensive communication is getting a lot better. There are things we need to work on like our passing, post feeds, and moving without the ball- things like that. We'll work on them this week during practice,” she says.

After some time away, Matangiroa Flavell is pleased to be back on court for The Whai.

'It feels good to be back. This week has been pretty full on with work. It's pretty cool that the team has welcomed me in with me being in and out but work is my commitment at the moment so trying to balance that athlete/work life at the moment. It's been good overall though.”

Matangiroa explains there are hurdles for The Whai, but they're not insurmountable.

'Mel was saying that a lot of us do live in different areas so we're just trying to come together and, especially during game time, we have little patches here and there. So trying to string together 40 minutes comes from off court stuff too- we're just trying to come together a bit more,” she says.

Mcaela Cocks is pleased with how the game unfolded for the Kahu.

Matangiroa Flavell attempting to break through Mcaela Cocks defence.

'That was a good game for us, we knew The Whai were going to come out really strong and we have a target on our backs- we haven't lost a game yet. We have to stay mentally switched on and not get too ahead of ourselves,” Mcaela says.

Resetting mentally is a key for the Kahu players.

'Our coaches do a great job of making sure we focus on each game, and we don't want to get too high or too low emotionally. We've done a great job of staying level headed and it's paying off,” Mcaela says.

Kahu coach Jody Cameron carries a composed poise with regards to her team.

'It went according to plan. It wasn't going to be an easy game but we have full faith in our players. We didn't go very deep today, it was one of those games with where we're at in the season that we just had to solidify it,” Jody says.

'Part of our goal is to play up. We have this thing in our team that we don't just want to win, but it's how we win,” she says.