Holding a narrow lead for much of their clash with South Australia Blue, the Tasmanians turned a one-point deficit into a one-point lead when Taran Armstrong (29 pts) drove at the basket and shot truly with 4.1 seconds on the clock.

But South Australia used its final timeout to get the ball to captain Matthew Thompson, who nailed a clutch two-pointer to seal a 67-66 result.

Tasmania has a 1-2 record going into day three after beating ACT 87-56 in its opener and falling to a strong Queensland side 89-65 despite the best efforts of captain Reyne Smith (27 pts).

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The women's side also had a tough day at the office after dropping their opening game to NSW White on Monday.

In the morning game, Tasmania went down to Victoria by 11 points despite a plucky last-term fightback led by Micah Simpson and Sharn Hayward (12 points each) and Aishah Anis (10).

Trailing by 15 points at the final change, the Tasmanians went on an 11-0 run before Victoria prevailed 66-55.

Later, Queensland proved much too strong with a 98-44 victory.

Anis shot 4-7 from the perimeter to record a team-high 14 points.

The under-20 Ivor Burge team were set to meet Western Australia in the night game after thumping South Australia Blue on Monday.