Pirates went to the break two goals down but rallied back in the second stanza to net two goals and forced extra-time.
The Buccaneers went 3-2 ahead midway through extra-time but succumbed to a stoppage time equaliser and eventually lost on penalties to bow out of the Nedbank Cup.
"I must say it was a good fight from the guys, we conceded two mistakes at the back, they got a penalty and they scored, it's part of the game but I'm proud of the guys," Memela told SuperSport TV.
"The coach spoke to us, he told us that this is not his team, so we need to fight and keep playing, don't give up and that's what we did, in the second-half and extra-time. You know penalties, you win some, you lose some. It wasn't our day."
Memela added that they did not change much tactically in the second stanza to come back to the game and went into detail about why their first stanza was not as good as the second stanza and extra-time.
"Nothing much, we were doing the same thing that we were doing, we just needed to up the tempo because first-half when we started the tempo was fine and as the game went on, we started to run with the ball a bit and not pass it quicker.
"So when we changed the attacking position, we changed slow, so they could switch quick. What we did [in the second-half] the coach told us we need to pass the ball quicker, so that we get the passing line and we attack from there, that's what we did, we scored those goals from that."