The Melbourne Tigers were left confused and frustrated after its sixth straight loss, a 94-89 NBL defeat at the hands of the Wollongong Hawks at the Sandpit on Saturday night.

The Tigers dropped to a 7-10 record following their second loss in as many nights but pushed the high flying Hawks right to the dying seconds of the game.

With under two minutes to go, the Tigers had cut the Hawks' lead to just a single point, but the exciting finish was lost in the aftermath.

A fired-up Andrew Gaze vented the emotions of his teammates, who struggled to understand a series of perplexing officiating decisions.

"We had everything going against us tonight," Gaze said.

"We can not get a break, and we didn't get our fair share tonight.

"It's very frustrating when you go some places and it's free flowing, and other places very physical.

"It's a shame that we lost tonight, but I'd still be saying the same things if we won."

Tigers coach Lindsay Gaze backed his son's comments, saying his team had to battle some huge obstacles.

"The pendulum has to swing at some stage, because it's unnatural that all the breaks go against you all the time."

For Wollongong, swingman Glen Saville had 22 points, big man Ben Pepper 19 and import guard Cortez Groves 16.

For Melbourne, ex-Boomers centre Mark Bradtke had 23, Gaze 20 and both Neil Mottram and Lanard Copeland 14.

Melbourne came ready to play in the first quarter, and with big man Bradtke a formidable target, it had the Hawks on the back foot.

Bradtke was the key to a 12-2 run that had the Tigers up by nine, and his 14 first quarter points helped them to a 31-25 lead at the first break.

Wollongong tightened its defence in the second quarter, and a 12-2 run allowed it to tie the game 48-48 at halftime.

Pepper rose to the challenge thrown out by Bradtke after the main break, hitting eight of his 19 points in the third quarter as Wollongong went into the last leading 75-71.

Melbourne showed it wasn't going to hand the game to Wollongong, grabbing the lead midway through the fourth, but it was the Hawks' defence that lifted again.

They held the Tigers scoreless for two straight 24 second shot clock violations, then regained the lead with a Melvin Thomas basket with under three minutes to go.

The result was still in the balance with Wollongong up 92-89 with just 20 seconds left, but Hawks guard Damon Lowery came up with the most important of his four steals to ensure the win.

Lowery's strip of Marcus Timmons gave teammate Groves a gift run to the basket, with his highlight reel dunk snuffing out Melbourne's last chance.

"We showed tremendous poise to be down by five with four minutes to go and come back to win," Wollongong coach Brendan Joyce said.

"The pressure was totally reversed on us at that stage and it was good for us to go through that."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP