Last season, Taranaki's basketball team put together a perfect record in the national league – played 16, lost 16. Now they've kept the streak alive with a loss to the Nelson Giants in round one of the 2010 Bartercard NBL.

The Fico Finance Giants, battered by injury and absenteeism, hung on for an 84-82 win in New Plymouth last night, conceding the 12-point lead they had at the three-quarter stage to barely scramble over the line.

The Giants were without Mika Vukona, who was unable to get back from his summer stint on the Gold Coast for the double-header road trip, and swingman Darryl Jones, who sustained a serious knee injury in Thursday's loss to Waikato. He was X-rayed yesterday and, while a fractured kneecap has been ruled out, the Giants will need to wait until Monday for an update on their steady sixth man.

Short-handed – in fact, just plain short – Nelson had taken a pounding on the boards from the Pistons but should have matched up better with the quaintly named Taranaki Mountain Airs last night. That's until 2.02m forward Bronson Beri went down with a suspected broken ankle and 2.12m centre Tony Rampton and 2.05m forward Mike Harrison got in foul trouble.

"We got out-rebounded horribly again but it's not hard to see why," Giants coach Chris Tupu said. "Mika [Vukona] arrives on Sunday and there'll be a welcoming party at the airport."

Beri suffered his injury when he got a steal and was taken down from behind by a defender. He had to be carried off the court and was on his way to hospital straight after the game.

In his place, youngster Sam Dempster saw 13 minutes on-court as Tupu shuffled his remaining players and sweated on the final whistle.

"We showed some stickability," he said. "They made runs and we survived them and, at the end, we were able to make the play to win the game, so that was a real positive to take away from the trip."

Taranaki trailed by 12, 69-57, after three quarters but with Harrison and point guard Mike Fitchett sidelined with four fouls apiece, made a strong run at the Giants, tying the scores at 82 in the last minute.

With the ball in his hands from an inbounds play, Harrison made a move from the top of the key and kissed the winning shot off the backboard with 1.1sec left.

The Giants were led by guard Phill Jones, who made six of his 12 three-point attempts on the way to a game-high 37 points. Josh Bloxham backed up a strong showing against Waikato with 15 last night, with Ben Wright adding four assists in 11min.

Harrison blocked four shots, while Rampton was the Giants' leading rebounder with seven.

The home team got their money's worth from US players Jack Leasure (26 points) and Demarshay Johnson (23 and 12 rebounds) but couldn't find the third scorer to get them over the hump.

Tupu was just glad to be contemplating the trip back to Nelson with points on the board.

"We're by no means where we want to be but we have a win and stuck together and showed some character," he said.

"Mika is a big part of the team we recruited and we could have used him in these games but he's here Sunday, thank goodness. If we can get some good news from the emergency wards, then we have a point to build from."

FICO FINANCE NELSON GIANTS 84: MFg-aFt-aRAPtsP Jones409-2313-160-3137J Bloxham306-121-10-2215T Rampton353-65-82-7311M Fitchett333-52-20-229M Harrison304-81-20-509S Dempster131-20-21-202B Beri50-01-20-001B Wright11 0-00-00-140TARANAKI MOUNTAIN AIRS 82:MFg-aFt-aRAPtsJ Leasure3711-180-01-3326D Johnson398-147-115-12323T Davey303-95-90-2111A Nowell303-82-23-908J Trueman184-90-00-408A Wastney171-10-01-102J Paurini111-10-00-102T Fisher31-10-00-002J Mills60-20-00-000T Cleaver50-10-00-000

Key: M = minutes played, Fg-a = field goals made and attempted, Ft-a = free throws made and attempted, R = offensive rebounds and total rebounds, A = assists, Pts = points.