By Goh De No in Brunei
Michael LeBlanc, who had a huge game the previous time the Slingers were in Brunei, came up big yet again with a team-high 26 points accompanying his six boards and was the only Slinger who played the full game. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports file photo)
Bandar Sri Begawan, Wednesday, January 20, 2010 – The Singapore Slingers came out firing on all cylinders to beat the Brunei Barracudas 95-89 ensuring that they will at least finish in second place in the ASEAN Basketball League. While this leaves the Barracudas tied with the KL Dragons at fourth place and their playoff fate still hanging in balance.
Both teams were only tied at tip-off as the Slingers controlled the entire ball-game and led from the beginning to finish.
Singaporean Hong Wei Jian came up with the ball after tip-off for a fast-break lay in, which led to a 10-0 run for the Slingers who were a sizzling 60.5% from the field and almost 50% from downtown in the first half.
Michael LeBlanc who had a huge game the previous time the Slingers were in Brunei, came up big yet again with a team high 26 points accompanying his six boards and was the only Slinger who played the full game.
The Slingers also had strong contributions from local boys Desmond Oh and Hong Wei Jian who both had double figures while pestering the Barracudas backcourt on defence.
Slingers coach Frank Arsego was proud of the Singaporeans believing that the local boys finally contributed to what was missed in the game against the KL Dragons 3 days ago.
“Tonight the local boys really took care of business along with Jeffers and LeBlanc,” Arsego said. “Michael (LeBlanc) is the key part of the development of the Slingers and he has a lot of confidence here. Kyle and him are always ready to take responsibility in the game.”
The Australian coach was beaming with pride of his Singapore-based team as he praised his players for displaying a good season’s work.
“The boys are committed to play a good team game and we’re desperate to be as successful as we can. We knew they needed to make the playoffs, and we knew we need to finish second,” he stated.
The Slingers’ floor general controlled the offense most of the game by creating space and setting up for each other. Slingers Filipino-import, Al Vergara, in particular, again contributed at the most crucial times to finish the game with 15 points and led everyone with six assists.
“We wanted to learn how to put things in the right place and be successful on the road,” Arsego shared, “I believe that to win a championship, a team has to be able to come up with wins on the road and the key thing is to play good defense on the road and tonight we made them work extremely hard.”
It was a totally different story for the Barracudas who never rose to be a threat to the Slingers in this game. They struggled from the field (20% field goals) and looked flat-footed in the first half playing uninspired basketball.
The only reason the Slingers were leading by only 14 at the half-time mark was because the Barracudas made 27 of their 32 free throws.
In the fourth quarter, the Singapore side extended the lead to as much as 20 and the Barracudas only managed to come as close as nine points with under three minutes to go but were again shut down by the Slingers’ formidable defence.
Barracudas Filipino point guard Leo Avenido led all scorers with 30 points, shooting 100% from the charity stripe before fouling out at the last minute.
Michael Pilgrim and captain Francis ‘Kiko’ Adriano both had sub-par nights as Pilgrim was hit with foul-trouble yet again.
Coach Bong Ramos believed that being down 10-0 in the first quarter really killed their momentum.
“You can see, they really tried their best so I cannot ask for more, they are still pushing hard but the Slingers had too big a cushion and controlled the game,” said the Filipino coach.
“I take full responsibility for the loss, we had a chance to go to the final four today but we didn’t make it. Now we have one last chance against the Patriots,” said an emotional Ramos who couldn’t get the win on his birthday.
Ramos added: “It is a privilege to coach the Barracudas. I thank the Lord really, we are still alive and kicking even though other teams expect us to be eliminated right away. Our players try their best and we are not out yet.”
Ramos made known that they are not going to rely on Satria Muda to beat the KL Dragons to advance, he shared: “We are focused on the game for Sunday, we have to push one more time.”
When asked about what could possibly be the last home game of the season, Ramos thanked the home fans for their tremendous support.
“They support us even when we were losing, they never left. I want to say thank you to the Bruneians, who have supported us and I take responsibility for the loss,” Ramos concluded.
In the battle for the final playoff spot, the KL Dragons will visit Satria Muda on Saturday where a win will put pressure on the Barracudas, who will take on the Patriots who have never lost at home on Sunday.
Brunei Barracudas Game Box Score
| # | Name | PTS | FG | 3PT | FT | OR | DR | TR | STL | BS | AST | TO | PF | MIN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 89 | 30/66 | 3/15 | 26/32 | 10 | 21 | 31 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 24 | 200 | |
| 9 | *Francis Adriano | 16 | 6/11 | 0/1 | 4/4 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 40:00 |
| 12 | *Celedon Camaso | 8 | 3/10 | 2/4 | 0/0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 31:10 |
| 13 | *Michael Pilgrim | 12 | 4/9 | 0/0 | 4/7 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 28:05 |
| 19 | *Leonidez Avenido | 30 | 8/15 | 1/4 | 13/13 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 40:00 |
| 24 | *Reggie Larry | 23 | 9/19 | 0/5 | 5/8 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 40:00 |
| 33 | Esmond Tan | 0 | 0/2 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 21:15 |
Singapore Slingers Game Box Score
| # | Name | PTS | FG | 3PT | FT | OR | DR | TR | AST | STL | BS | TO | PF | MIN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 95 | 34/61 | 7/17 | 20/35 | 6 | 24 | 30 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 26 | 200 | |
| 2 | Desmond Oh | 10 | 3/3 | 2/2 | 2/4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12:27 |
| 5 | Wong Wei Long | 0 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5:10 |
| 10 | *Hong Wei Jian | 11 | 4/5 | 0/1 | 3/4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 13:05 |
| 11 | Michael Wong | 3 | 1/5 | 1/3 | 0/0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 14:28 |
| 13 | Steven Khoo | 2 | 1/2 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6:02 |
| 15 | Pathman Matialakan | 2 | 1/2 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11:10 |
| 19 | *Al Vergara | 15 | 5/9 | 3/6 | 2/6 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 35:10 |
| 21 | *Marcus Ng | 7 | 3/5 | 0/0 | 1/4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 34:02 |
| 31 | *Kyle Jeffers | 19 | 7/12 | 0/1 | 5/7 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 29:10 |
| 35 | *Michael Leblanc | 26 | 9/17 | 1/3 | 7/10 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 40:00 |
Popularity: 24% [?]
30 pts for avenido… is that the highest for an asean player?
@stars,
Adriano also scored 30 against the Tigers 2 weeks ago : )
That’s kinda insane. Looking at the box scores, the Barracudas only used six players. No local player contribution. No team can win games with poor or zero bench production.
In all my years of watching basketball (PBA, NBA, US-NCAA, UAAP, Asian Games, FIBA, etc.) I have never seen a “zero” output from the bench.
Is it just me because it seems that the Barracudas is the only team who have ASEAN based imports who have PBA experience. I know Rensy Bajar of Satria Muda used to play in the PBA, but I don’t count him anymore since he got fired from his team.
“I believe that to win a championship, a team has to be able to come up with wins on the road and the key thing is to play good defense on the road and tonight we made them work extremely hard.”
- Frank Arsego
I completely agree!
GOOOO SLINGERS!!!!! So Proud of you guys!!! Great job Coach A!!!! Yes!!!! Slinger Home Court Advantage for playoffs!!! YEAAHHHHH!!!!!!
It’s ridiculous that there is no bench contribution but then again, I guess they’ve shown it’s not impossible…. Unforunately, Brunei has a tiny pop of 400,000 so finding talent is not exactly easy.
barracudas mgnt should give their imports some overtime pay or rather overplay bonus..
actually in my opinion, one of the reason why only the barracudas have pba calibre players most probably due to the network/connection that they have from their coach. coach bong ramos know his players i guess.
correct me if i’m wrong but if i’m nt mistaken for the PP, the coach is university/college based/level am i right?
the same goes to KL Dragons too, where the only connection/network they had was with the UE Red Warrior hence it was 3 players from UE Red Warrior at first but Llyas Narciso turned down the offer.
as for slingers and SM, they are the only 2 teams that have been established before ABL in contrast to the rest of the team who’ve been build prior to ABL
Very good observations mislan… Take note, the Slingers’ advantage is their exposed to higher level competition back when they’re with the Australian NBL.
@mislan..you do your homework.. you have everything correct..
Loiue Alas has coached Mobiline in the PBA and Manila MetroStars in the MBA and the Philippine team at the 1999 SEA games…
@lrangels, this is not the same slingers team the competed in nbl..
PP coach Louie Alas has coached Mobiline in the PBA, Manila MetroStars in the MBA and the Philippine Team at the 1999 SEA Games…
3stars is correct, those slingers team back then consist of australian/import based players
pathman played for slingers in the NBL
Thank you for taking out the Barracudas! As a Dragons fan, I never thought I’d say this, but…. GOOOO SLINGERS! Hahaha!
@3stars and mislan, thanks for the insight about the Slingers that competed in the NBL two years ago. I thought there are some local or Singapore born players there to increase the NBL’s fan base in the ASEAN reagion.
Again, thanks.
The whole time ABL home game matches were played in Brunei, the timing hadn’t been opportune for me to drive 2.5 hours to watch so in the last game of the season I rounded up some friends to go shoot.
http://shimworld.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/brunei-barracudas-vs-singapore-slingers/
I met all the team members at the official ABL launch in Makati, Manila
http://shimworld.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/barracudas-joins-asean-basketball-league/
Enjoy.
GOOOO SLINGERS…Great game guys & Coaches, keep pushing and give it your all and as ALWAYS u make me very proud MLB!!
GO SLINGERS
Hi Jan Shim, if you would like to share your photos on this site for Red Hoops readers to enjoy, you can send along 420×280 (horizontal) pixel or 330×220 (vertical) pixel photos to us.
You can send it to Jan Lin at jan@redhoops.com
and we’ll post it up with the appropriate credit to you.
cheers
les tan
creator of Red Hoops
Slinger site says game is starting… Fiba is getting ready…. Tigers vs Slingers 4 pm on 24th? nothing from Redhoops?? time check here in Cali… lol
Slingers win Tigers!!!! Do it guys!!!!
kj’s crying… hiding behind her mom… mommy huhuhu
I think KL dragons is compose mainly of their national teams, they had been playing around together for sometimes, like Slingers & SMB.
in 2002 PBA draft, Coach Louie Alas who drafted Gilbert Demape over John “Arsenal Arrigo”.
Yo Jake!!! Slingers are kicking Tiger butts!! MLB has a D/D already & my son Jeffers is top scorer at this moment with 20 Points!!! You are really weird Jake…. no one is crying or hiding from anyone… bring it on man!! or u a girly… huh??? we are very happy over here!! hahaha PROUD SLINGERMOM!! PEACE OUT!
Yo Jake… Jeffers just made a 3!!! 23 pts!!! YEAAHHHH GO SLINGERS!!
Slingers come home with the road win over Tigers 92-78!!!!! MLB top man of the game (Congrats Dora!!) with KJ right behind him, both with D/D’s! Al & Path with 10 pts each!! All the Slingers did fantastic & congrats to you guys!!! I certainly hope that the Stadium will be packed on the 31st for the Playoffs & you Locals show some love for your Slingers by going to the game & cheering for your Team!!! So Proud of all you Slingers!! YES!!!
After 15 games, seems like AL Vergara deserves to be called 3-point king (along with that young Malaysian shooter) based on stats…
at least 40 percent accuracy
an average of at least 1 3-point shot made per game.