The RetireInvest Ballarat Miners dropped their second game in a row at the Minerdome on Saturday _ losing to the athleticism, youth and superior height of the Australian Institute of Sport 113-104.

It was a performance that left Miners head coach Shane Mathison far from impressed.

"We had three bad quarters defensively.

"And then when we got it right, we went off offensively," he said.

After doing most of the chasing for three quarters, Ballarat finally shut down the AIS in the last term.

However, the Miners were unable to capitalise, thanks largely to some over-adventurous passes in to the key.

They had 10 turnovers in the final 12 minutes.

The AIS went hard and fast at Ballarat from the outset and it took a toll on the home team, which was missing outstanding young guard Ricky Henderson.

Henderson pulled out on Saturday with a hip problem, not only leaving the Miners short on manpower, but also without their most potent defensive player and aggressive attacker.

"I thought he'd come up," Mathison said.

It allowed the AIS, which was able to spread its minutes evenly across 12 players _ 10 had more than 15 minutes on court _ to stretch the stamina of Ballarat as the bulk of the workload fell back on seven players.

Jamal Brown and Phil Benn had nothing left after big contributions.

Brown shot 25 points and had 12 rebounds, but looked a spent offensive force late and was unable to add to his scoring tally in the last quarter.

Benn also ran himself into the ground with a massive second half as he took on the mantle as the Miners' number one big man.

Although still second to Knox Raiders on the east conference ladder, defeats in their past two games have the Miners caught in a ruck which sees all seven teams in the running for the top four.

It is not where Mathison thought they would be after staving off Mt Gambier three games ago.