The Heat led Lithgow Lazers by two points at half-time before the home team dominated the third quarter.

They scored 25 points to 15 take a big lead and Wagga couldn’t recover to fall to a 98-84 loss.

Captain Zac Maloney believes it will be a good learning experience for the team.

“They come out, shot the ball really well and we didn't make too many adjustments to what they are doing,” Maloney said.

“It was just a quick three or four minutes and that was it for us. We weren’t able to recover.”

Apart from losing control of the game, Maloney believes there were plenty of positives to take from the difficult trip to Lithgow.

Rating it the hardest venue to play at in the league, he was impressed by how well the Heat scored against the second placed team.

“Our first half was really good,” Maloney said.

“Defensively we still allowed a lot of points but offensively we were clicking and getting different looks.

“The last quarter we finished off strong, we were playing for percentage so we didn’t really shut down.

“They got out by a bit more than 20 and we were able to bring it up go to 14 so there are still some good signs and a lot of positives to take out of it.”

Maloney and US import Connell Crossland both top scored with 21 points while having Josh McPherson (18) and Scott Hare (10) both in double digits was another pleasing aspect.

“Offensively we still scored 84 points, which would win most games, but they shot the ball really well and we didn’t make adjustments to what they were doing,” Maloney said.

The Heat now boast a record of four wins and four losses coming into another week off.

They are looking to recharge their batteries before travelling to take on Dubbo on May 26.

The two teams only met last month with Wagga scoring a 76-64 win.