MANCHESTER Giants will be out to end a three-game losing streak when Leicester Riders hit the Trafford Sportsdome on Sunday (6pm).

The Giants suffered a tough weekend at the hands of Yorkshire opposition last time out.

First they failed to get back on track in the British Basketball League (BBL) at Leeds on Friday night, then the visiting Sheffield Sharks knocked them out of the BBL Trophy on Sunday.

Coach Jeff Jones is demanding an improvement for the visit of the high-flying Riders.

His men have eight wins and remain in the play-off positions in seventh but Jones said: "We were awful on Friday night and although we were much better and against a better team in Sheffield we still need to pick up.

"We need to be smarter down the stretch and execute."

The Giants fell just short in their bid to reach the next round of the Trophy.

They went down 79-76 after staging a battling fightback against their rivals in a thrilling and finely-balanced game.

The Sharks edged the first quarter and took a 42-39 lead into half time.

Giants tied it at 44-44 in the third period before the Sharks went into the fourth 59-51 ahead.

But the Giants hit back again, backed by a passionate home crowd, and tied the game three more times before a tense finish when Stefan Gill’s late three-point attempt was marginally off target just before the buzzer.

It would have levelled things for overtime had it gone in but the Sharks hung on to the advantage to go through.

Gill led the Giants with 16 points, while Ingus Bankevics had 13, David Watts 12, Ben Eaves and Mike Bernard 11 each and Callum Jones 10 plus seven assists and eight boards. Ryan Lewis chipped in with three.

The Giants could not maintain an earlier fightback in Leeds a day earlier and went down to a disappointing 85-76 loss.

After conceding the first quarter 20-10, the Giants went in at half time 48-31 down.

They rallied in the third after being as many as 20 down to close the gap to just four in the fourth quarter.

But Leeds pulled away again with shots from the foul line to seal the win.

Eaves was the Giants’ stand-out player with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Gill had 18 points while Bernard hit 14, Bankevics 12 and Jones 10.