The men won an 87-84 thriller against Hills Hornet in their opening game of the season at the Maitland Federation Centre on Saturday night and then lost 90-87 with the ball in hand against Inner West Bulls on Sunday.

The women lost their opening home game 74-55 to the Hornet but secured their first win of the season beating the Bulls 76-71 on the back of a 37-point effort by Hannah Griffin who iced the game from the free-throw line in the dying seconds.

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Griffin was in electrifying form shooting overall at 58 per cent including making six of 11 three-point attempts.

She was ably backed up by Hannah Fox who shot 16 points and pulled in 11 rebounds.

Rachel Williams, Dalia Walker and Victoria Unicomb all shot six points and Unicomb also had 13 rebounds.

Mikaela Dombkins was the star of Saturday with a double double performance of 21 points and 15 rebounds. She also had two assists and four steals. Griffin scored 15 and made seven rebounds and Williams scored 11.

In front of the big home crowd, James Hunter led the way for the men on Saturday night with a double double, landing a game-high 24 points and pulling in 11 rebounds.

In remarkably even performance Hunter's starting five teammates Jack Edwards scored 13, Daniel Milburn and Terrell Turner 10 each and Scott McGann shot eight but also had seven rebounds.

Lachie Beavis made a strong contribution from the bench collecting eight rebounds and scoring six points. The bench overall contributed 22 points and 21 rebounds in a sign of the club's growing depth.

But in a blow Jay Cole injured his knee and while there is no ligament damage his recovery still needs to be assessed

Hunter backed up with another strong performance on Sunday landing 19 points, Billy Parsons had 12, but Milburn was man of the match with a game-high 29 points in a welcome return to some of his best form.

The Mustangs had the ball with eight seconds to play but were unable to send the game into overtime.

Mustangs coach Luke Boyle said the team was frustrated over dropping a game they should never have lost.

"We were leading by 18 points going into half-time and they reduced that to 14 with a couple of errors on our part. We came out and they had it back to six on the back of four errors in a row by us," Boyle said.

By the final break the Bulls led by three and extended it out to eight before the Mustangs fought back.

"There were a couple of brain fade moments by us which cost us dearly, but we will learn from it," Boyle said.