And, there would be no shock this time around.

The script was followed to the 'nth' degree with the undermanned Gators surrendering by 24 points on the toughest road trip in the Victorian Basketball League Big V men's division 1 to the Geelong Cats on Saturday night.

The Gators' back court was decimated with injury.

Missing from the line-up were Rohan Bishop, Luke Jarosz and Jason Shielke.

The Gators that were available did not help their own cause.

"The first and second quarters were very disappointing," Gators coach Darren Davey said.

"When you only score 19 points in a half of basketball you're not going to win anything.

"We had 30 turnovers and that doesn't help at all.

"It was very disappointing."

The Gators did their utmost to get back into the contest after half-time.

Towering centre James Guljas was at the coal-face for the Gators with 13 points and 19 rebounds.

Adam Spence, playing under an injury cloud out of necessity, contributed 13 points but could not dictate the flow of the game.

A bright spot for the Gators was the continual improvement of veteran Randy Shanklin, who has been restricted to eight games this season due to a troublesome ankle.

Shanklin managed 28 minutes on the court.

Despite the Gators' lack of depth, Geelong did enough to impress Davey, but he was far from happy with his side of the equation.

"They played very well, they're a polished team and that's why they're on top of the ladder," Davey said.

"We shot poorly, we weren't running it properly and had an off night."

A month out from the finals and all to play for, the Gators will be keen to turn around their mini-form slump on the road at Melbourne University on Saturday night.

"It's a very big game," Davey said. "It's a must-win game for us. If we lose this game, we're going to find it hard to make the finals."

Lance Jenkinson