By Jan Lin/Red Hoops. Photos by Les Tan/Red Hoops in Jakarta
Faisal Ahmad Julius (Satria Muda, #5) drives to the basket past Hong Wei Jian (Slingers, #10). (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
BritAma Arena, Saturday, November 14, 2009 – It was a heart-wrenching 61-59 home defeat for hosts Satria Muda, who had brought to the game everything they had in them, including their egos.
Satria Muda’s head coach Fictor Roring was quick to identify the stumbling block to the victory that was at their fingertips. He revealed: “Towards the last few minutes of the game, the players were playing by themselves and not with each other. This opens up all our passings and defense, [which] is the reason why we lost.”
“It was very, very disappointing how we couldn’t stick together until the end,” said Roring.
Indeed, to lose a 40-minute game after leading for 39:36 minutes is devastating to say the least and the wound cut twice as deep to lose the game in their own den.
Unlike the game in Singapore a fortnight ago where Satria Muda had no answer to the Slingers’ shooting spree of 63% from the field and 60% from beyond the 3-point arc, Satria Muda unleashed an up-tempo game to put good pressure on the Slingers and deny a similar onslaught in Jakarta.
“We were able to stop the Slingers shooters in the beginning of the game. We know they have good shooters and we want to stop them. In fact we’ve reduced their threes to just 3 (20%) in this game,” said Roring.
“But in the closing minutes,” Roring said, revealing the killer blow that floored his team, “the three from Slinger number 10 (Hong Wei Jian) killed us. He killed us, he had two big shots.”
24-year-old local Slinger Hong Wei Jian contributed eight points in this game with five scored during crunch time, particularly the two-pointer in the final 24 seconds of the game that put the Slingers ahead for the first time.
Slingers’ assistant coach Neo Beng Siang explained the late show brought on by the high-energy duo of Hong Wei Jian and Marcus Ng.
Coach Neo said: “They were able to find their own confidence as they weren’t able to get to the basket in the first half. For Marcus in the second half, after a good stagger screen, he curled in, one-two step right to the hole and got himself a basket and his confidence built up from there. For Wei Jian, when we were ten points down at the end, we were chasing points, he was open and he took the shot, he got it and that gave him the confidence for the second one.”
He believes that Satria Muda’s American import Alexander Hartman missing the crucial free throws in the dying seconds when his team was 59-58 up was a turning point, but Roring remained critical of his side’s crumbling team play especially in the closing stages of the game.
“I think some players just want to be a hero! I don’t like that,” Roring said matter-of-factly. “We lost a ten-point lead in the last three minutes today, but I believe we have a very big chance the next time we play Slingers here in December.”
Roring stressed: “The important thing now is to train as a team. It’s a big issue for us, we are not yet blended together. The Slingers are just a very good team, with very good coach, very good imports. They can blend with the local players and that is our problem.”
Despite having the upper hand, the Slingers, who ended their morning training session with head coach Frank Arsego reminding them that “we are in charge of our destiny”, took more than three quarters to find the confidence they needed to be in charge.
“We’ve expected more from our boys actually. We had a bad first half with twelve turnovers but I’m pleased that we only had two in the second half as it made us more confident and run the system well,” coach Neo said. “From then on they protected the ball well, drove to the hole, then everyone just rocked up.”
Rensy Morales Bajar (Satria Muda, #4) lays up for two past Kyle Jeffers (Slingers, #31). Bajar finished with 12 points on the night. (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Julius drives between Pathman (Slingers, #35) and Wei Jian. (Photo 3 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Alexander Hartman (Satria Muda, #8) goes for two. He had a team-high 13 points. (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Satria Muda coach Fictor Roring dishes out instructions during a timeout. (Photo 5 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Loading ...
Just keep working on Teamwork Coach Roring… you have a very talented group of young men who just need a bit more blending… You are a very respected team in the ABL so keep up the great work… Glad my Slingers won, yet your Team had us most of the night & I know how heart wrenching that can be.
Peace out.. Slingermom
Nice new haircut Faisal has! Wei jian’s hair is growing longer…
Any news about Desmond? Heard that he got a cut on his eye…
@Jake What a purposeful post, I mean seriously. Anyway, Satria Muda deserves credit, Miller was a force down there, KJ had trouble against them but defense prevailed in the end. Good effort Slingers
i’m just being curious i do not mean to offend, you will understand what i mean if you read his posts. i beleive you will notice it too… anyway paquiaos bout was again a one sided affair… not much of a show, anyway congrats to him.
Satria muda should have won, had it not been for immaturity of some players,especially faisal!,Sitepu! trying hard to score all the time.
yeah they did not play a team game, instead they opt to show off… those jerks cost them the win…
@jake,
I also noticed you trying to get Slingerrocks’s attention…. you were shouting for this name in the other thread-> “Slingerrocks?????…….???”
No offense buddy!!
The VOD for PAcquiao’s bout had problems – it stopped in the 7th round!!!! I’m not paying for the VOD charge!!!!
Maybe for the next Pacquiao, they can line up Julia Abueva to sing th Philippine national anthem.
you should have watched it live at araneta… it isn’t much of a bout though. another one sided bout for pacman. hope a mayweather bout will be more entertaining…
The bout is in Vegas. What do you mean live at Araneta?
I wonder how many attended the Slingers-Satria game?
I will not be able to follow the Patriots-Dragons game this afternoon, the Pacquiao bout has already eaten ore than half of my day already.
Big possibility that the Patriots will have the home court advantage ths aftrnoon.
live pay per view coverage… the patriots will be missing gaco and baguion in todays game, gaco has a fever and baguions knee is in doubt…
It wasn’t full. I’d say no more than 1500. But they were LOUD. The best crowd so far. Although what they were saying was quite beyond me. They had a megaphone in the stands. Impossible to smuggle one into the Singapore Indoor Stadium but it sure is useful for creating noise.
@jack, I don’t think it is fair to say that Faisal and Sitepu are immature players. Who are you to say that?
And what has Pacquiao got to do with redhoops? Seriously.
He means immature cause they can’t handle the 4th qtr pressure..
Pacquiao is our fellow ASEAN.. And RedHoops is, though a basketball site, is for us ASEANS.. Figure?? Our boy is a SEVEN division title holder.. He is the best in the world right now..
@Jake Yabang nga ehh.. Bobo naman..;p
Translation: We love Slingerrocks!;p
Manny Pacquiao can enter his own team in the ABL. He can spray paint the ABL team names on his back during fights. imagine the buzz created.
@Deana http://www.singaporeslingers.com See the highlights of the last few seconds of the game on the right side of the home page. KJ Interview also included XD
Gordan!! TY!!!! the video clip is circulating as we speak!! Goooo Slingers!!!!!!
Les, another thing the ABL needs to fix… NO MEGAPHONES ALLOWED!!! I have been to games in Europe where they are allowed & a person can loose their hearing & worse have a damn heart attack for goodness sakes, needless to say it can also disrupt the players on the floor which is a big problem… These obnoxious devices are not allowed here & anyone who does smuggle one is has been escorted out of the game by security or the megaphone is taken from the idiot who brought it in! lol Yeahhh Slingers for ignoring the megaphones at the end!!! haha…
Yeah, that megaphone was something else. The people sitting around the guy must be deaf now. There’s no way to get one into the Singapore Indoor Stadium and even if you managed to smuggle it in, you’d be yanked once you use it. : )
Anyway, I think one of the reasons why the Slingers are quite calm at away games is because they don’t understand a word of the insults.
No one is insulting them in English yet.
Les… too funny!!!! lol….