By Les Tan/Red Hoops in Manila

San Juan Arena, Manila, Saturday, November 7, 2009 – The Singapore Slingers were crushed 70-53 by the Philippine Patriots in their ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) matchup, bringing their four-game winning streak to an abrupt halt.

The Slingers now have a 4-1 win-loss record while the Patriots are 3-1, their sole loss coming against the Slingers last month.

The Slinger starting five of Michael Wong, Marcus Ng, Kyle Jeffers, Michael LeBlanc and Desmond Oh were never allowed to settle by an intense Patriot defensive show in the first quarter and it was no surprise that the Patriots walked off leading 22-8 after just a quarter.

With Wong Wei Long and Lim Wai Sian down with chicken pox upon arrival in Manila and Al Vergara nursing a bruised knee, coach Frank Arsego knew the team was stretched to the limit.

“My intention was never to play Al [Vergara]. Maybe play him only for five minutes or two minutes but we couldn’t execute without him,” said Arsego.

As the Slingers started to crumble and were staring at an eight point deficit at 8-16, Arsego was compelled to introduce Al Vergara into the game with 2:15 left in the first quarter.

The Slingers achieved parity with the Patriots only in the early minutes of the first quarter, a one-handed dunk by Kyle Jeffers to make it 4-4 giving the Slinger bench some hope that maybe the depleted team could compete.

The Patriots though started to pull further ahead and by the time Brandon Powell sank a three-pointer to make it 14-6, Arsego had seen enough and introduced Vergara.

The momentum though was with the Patriots and they soon established an 18-point lead in the second quarter at 28-10 before Desmond Oh hit a 3-pointer at 6:45 to make it 28-13.

Patriot shooting started going cold, with their centre Jason Dixon getting mad enough to yell at his teammates to “bring the ball inside”.

Even then, the Patriots still walked off with a 13-point, 36-23 lead at half-time.

The Slingers started the third quarter brightly with a Jeffers two-handed slam and a Vergara 3-pointer to make it a 10-point game at 38-28.

The match got more interesting when Marcus Ng stole the ball to lay it up for two and another Jeffers slam dunk cut the deficit to nine at 33-42, forcing the Patriots coach Louie Alas to call a timeout to calm his team down.

Jeffers was having a hot streak and he delivered another one-handed slam when play resumed and now it was a seven-point deficit at 35-42.

The Slingers drew to within seven points late in the third quarter at 37-44 but threw away their opportunities at the free throw line. Michael Wong sank only one of three to narrow the deficit to six but that was the closest they would get.

From then on, some inconsistent calls from the Slinger point of view, a Rob Wainwright rejection of Marcus Ng and a missed Pathman layup saw an 8-4 Patriot run that gave the home team a 50-39 lead at the end of the third quarter.

At the same time, Filipino Elmer Espiritu also slammed the door shut on the Slinger resurgence. Espiritu had a three-point play and sank a jump shot to stretch the Patriot lead to 55-43 early in the fourth, giving his team breathing room after the Slingers came to within six at 50-44.

A Powell slam dunk at 6:00 to make it 57-43 raised cheers from the small home crowd before Espiritu scored another two points with a tip-in and Erwin Sta. Maria had a three-point play of his own to make it 62-49.

Vergara then limped out with 2:55 on the clock because of cramps caused by the taping of his knee injury.

The Patriots had a game-high 19-point lead towards the end of the fourth quarter before wrapping up the 17-point victory, 70-53.

“Since we’ve had our head coach [Louie Alas] back, we’ve played real good basketball. We’re confident as a team,” said Patriot captain Rob Wainwright who had eight points on the night.

American Brandon Powell had a team-high 14 points for the Patriots on 5 of 8 shooting from 2-point range and also spoke of a better team effort since the Patriots’ 74-69 loss to the Slingers on October 18.

“We worked on our team chemistry more,” reflected Powell, when asked what was different about this team from the one that showed up in Singapore last month.

On his own performance, Powell said: “I came out and played good. I had great intensity. I’m excited about the win. It was a big win for us.”

Patriot coach Louie Alas was pleased with the team’s performance.

“We had few turnovers in the game. We got only 11. I think that spelt the difference,” said Alas.

Two players also stood out for him.

“Jason Dixon played well. And [Elme] Espiritu played well also,” he added. Dixon had 12 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds while Espiritu had seven points and five rebounds.

As for the Slingers, the last-minute loss of back up point guard Wei Long was a big blow.

“Wei Long pulling out [because of chicken pox] ripped the heart out of the team because he could have handled their #27 (Froilan Baguion),” said Arsego.

With Vergara doubtful and Wei Long not available, Arsego noted that Marcus Ng and Michael Wong struggled playing on point tonight.

“Marcus is not used to the physicality and Michael Wong is a good passer but he’s not comfortable starting plays off the dribble,” added Arsego.

The poor first quarter – where they were outscored 22-8 – played a big part in setting the tone of the game.

“I think we started off in a manner that the other team just knew that they were probably going to be in control. That was probably a bit hard to handle,” said Arsego.

The Slingers made up for it in the second and third quarter when they outscored the Patriots 15-14 and 16-14 respectively.

“Credit to the boys for getting us back to eight points [behind] at one point [in the fourth quarter], but unfortunately we missed three free throws and it could have been back to five [behind].

“At that point, if we could have held on for that little bit longer, maybe some things could have come around. But we would have had to play out of our skins to get through to the end. We just didn’t have enough horses to compete with a very good team,” Arsego concluded.

Quarter by Quarter Scores
Patriots vs Slingers
1st Q: 22-8
2nd Q: 14-15
3rd Q: 14-16
4th Q: 20-14

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score

Philippine Patriots Game Box Score