After leading Manawatu by 13 at the half, the Huskies surrendered the lead with a 27-13 third term and trailed by as many as five in the last before securing an 89-84 win in Hobart.

Billups led all comers with 31 points, including 3-4 from three-point range, and complemented Marcel Jones' 17 rebounds with 11 of his own.

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Huskies assistant coach Brett Smith said the US import had been the difference against a Jets side boasting Allen Iverson's cousin Kuran.

"Jalen Billups was outstanding for us," Smith said.

"What hurt us a little bit was we went 17 from 30 from the foul line - you need to be shooting about 75 per cent from the foul line and we were 60, 55, but that's just repetition in getting shots up.

"Jordan Vandenberg played his best game of the season for us ... he's our seven-foot-two guy coming off the bench so he really gave us a real punch in that first half.

"In the last quarter particularly our defence is probably what saved us - we weren't scoring freely but we knuckled down and got some really big stops in the last two minutes."

Smith said the past two results showed the team was on the right path ahead of crucial away games against Taranaki and Supercity.

"We're just gelling better as weeks go by, so the more close games the more under pressure we get we're going to get better at it," he said.

"Certainly earlier in the year we had a couple of close losses where we didn't handle it very well, so we're improving with our structures and the guys are just getting to know each other better and what to do when the pressure's on."