Newcastle suffered their first defeat of the Waratah Basketball League women's championship on Saturday, going down 80-63 to fellow contenders Hornsby Spiders at the Brickpit to end their winning streak at 19 games.

Hornsby are one of three teams sitting in equal second position with a 15-5 win-loss record behind the Hunters, who slipped to 19-1. Canberra Nationals, who share second spot with Hornsby and Norths Bears, are Newcastle's next opponent in Canberra next Saturday.

Newcastle coach Shannon Seebohm gave credit to Hornsby for exposing some of his team's frailties, and hoped his players responded positively to their first loss of the season.

"We were outplayed in a number of areas," Seebohm said.

"It was a great game for us in a way because it highlighted a few things we need to improve to compete with this level of team, and it may have been masked when we've been playing some of the non-finals teams over the past month. We have things we need to work on but I'm very confident the team will regroup and learn from this game next week when we face Canberra."

Newcastle knew they were in for a fight when the Spiders jumped to a 26-14 lead at quarter-time.

Hornsby maintained that lead through the next two quarters and extended it in the final term.

Newcastle were out-rebounded 42-30 and Hornsby were far more effective at executing offensively.

The Spiders shot at 55 per cent from the floor (31 of 56) and 50 per cent from three-point range (eight of 16) compared to Newcastle's 37 per cent from the floor (25 of 67) and 35 per cent (six of 17) from beyond the arc.

Jaimee Seebohm (13 points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals), Lara McSpadden (13 points, six rebounds, three assists) and Alison Ebzery (10 points, two rebounds, two assists) were the only Newcastle players to score in double figures.

Hannah Young and Jasmin Howe were held to eight points and seven points respectively, well below their season averages.

Despite being without five regular players, Newcastle's men's team ended a four-game losing streak by overwhelming the Spiders 90-76 to almost certainly hand Hornsby the wooden spoon.

Reversing an 87-83 loss to Hornsby in Newcastle on April 27, the Hunters improved their record to 4-16 and left the Spiders (1-19) in bottom spot.

The Hunters led 22-20 at quarter-time and 38-37 at the half after a see-sawing first two quarters but flexed their muscles after the long break to win comfortably.

"It was a tremendous team win under the circumstances, playing so under-manned, and I'm really proud of all of them," Hunters coach Anthony Foy said.

Guard Hayden Howell led the way for Newcastle with a season-high 21 points to go with five rebounds, two steals and two assists.

Howell was well supported by imports Sharif Watson (19 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two blocked shots) and Lonnie Funderburke (16 points, 16 rebounds, three assists, two blocks).

Joe Hassan chipped in with 13 points, six rebounds and three assists, and 17-year-old Trace Evans provided a vital nine points off the bench on four-of-four shooting, and three rebounds.