By Jan Lin in Bangkok

Nimibutr National Stadium, Bangkok, Sunday, January 24, 2010 – The Singapore Slingers had to win against the Thailand Tigers to give themselves a shot at first place in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL). In the end, they did their part but the Philippine Patriots also did theirs to wrap up first place with a win over the Brunei Barracudas in Manila.

A Patriots loss in Manila would have given the Slingers first place. Instead, the Slingers will now face Satria Muda BritAma who finished third on the standings while the Patriots entertain the fourth-placed KL Dragons in their semi-final playoffs.

The final ABL game between Thailand Tigers and Singapore Slingers was one chaotic battle where two Slingers fouled out and three Tigers were wounded in the early stages of the game. This was the Slingers fourth away victory while the Tigers tasted their fifth home defeat.

With the Slingers and Tigers tied 1-1 in their head-to-head meetings prior to this game, with both teams taking a game each in Singapore, and with both games having gone down the wire, this tiebreaker had promised to be an equally tight affair. And it was, for the first five minutes after tip-off.

Disaster struck the Thailand camp midway through the first period with the score tied at 8-8. Tigers 28-year-old captain Piyapong Piroon was dealt a heavy knock in the midst of a defensive riot under the basket and was swung out of the court. Piroon lay motionless holding his head as his team mates rushed from the bench to attend to him, then assisting him back to the bench.

Ratdech Kruatiwa was brought on for Piroon. From that point on the Tigers’ rhythm was obviously disturbed and was completely broken four minutes later when their 36-year-old American import Ikenna Nwankwo was brought down in an awkward manner and limped out of the court in pain. In the absence of the two key players, the visitors stretched the lead to six points at the end of the first quarter.

Tigers coach Soonthornpong Mawinthorn, who was forced to stand in as head coach after Chuck Davisson had to return to America right after the Tigers’ narrow defeat to the Slingers in Singapore last month, said: “When I was told Ikenna and Piroon are not able to continue, I had to make adjustment mostly to the center position and the number 2 position.”

“I had to adjust the play and the defense where we were inconsistent,” Mawinthorn added, “but the Slingers were just really fast and had many fast breaks. The Slingers point guard was really fast. I tried to make adjustments but Slingers always had an answer to my adjustment.”

The Tigers’ bench was stretched further when their other American import Chazz Briggs strained his back just less than 10 seconds into the second period. Briggs was treated for half of the second period before he was released back onto the court. But by the end of the second period, the Slingers had doubled their lead to go into the half-time break ahead 41-29.

The Tigers managed to increase the intensity of their defense in the third period, forcing the Slingers to exhaust the shot clock several times. Still it didn’t take long for the Slingers to adjust to the tactical change as they marched on to seize a 14-point lead at the end of the third quarter. And even with their imports Marcus Ng and Kyle Jeffers fouling out in the final quarter, the Slingers’ grip on victory was firm.

“We handled their full-court pressure and we found ourselves getting easy baskets underneath and that helped a lot today,” Slingers head coach Frank Arsego shared. “It was a tough game, it’s physical. We’ve been away for about 9 days and it’s our third game in 9 days and as much as we’ve been working hard to stay fresh but we were tired. I think it tested us mentally more so than anything.”

Accounting for the less than composed performance and shedding light on the rather reckless affair between the two teams, Arsego said: “I think what challenged us was the mental side of things. We played well and opened up the gap but [it’s challenging] to keep driving yourself to stay in that situation. Because the Tigers are more than capable of getting 3-point shots, they can score quickly.”

Indeed, in the previous two meetings, the Tigers’ consistency in dropping the three-pointers was the key to unsettling the Slingers with the local Tigers often responsible for the treys. So despite finishing in last position in the inaugural ABL season, there is still much for the Tigers to shout about as they look ahead to the second season.

Coach Mawinthorn shared: “For the next season, to do better we will need to get good imports like what Slingers and the other teams have. Part of the reason [for finishing last] was due to this but transition from one coach to another was a main reason.”

“It’s hard to take over especially with only four remaining games because I need to use what Chuck has taught already and adjusting that to my coaching system is a bit different. My way and style of coaching is more of the Filipino way of coaching,” said the Filipino coach who’s also a Thai citizen.

“The team was started very hastily so there was little thought put into the management in terms of finding the coaches, the players, the imports,” he concluded, “but we’ve given our best in all our games and our locals, for me, and for everyone who watches the ABL, our locals’ performance for the whole season have gained my admiration.”

The win gives the Slingers a 10-5 win-loss record and they now face Satria Muda BritAma in the opening game of the three-game semi-final playoffs on Sunday, January 31st, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Game time is 4pm.

The Philippine Patriots, who finished top of the league, will face the KL Dragons in the other semi-final playoff tipping off on the same day and at the same time.

Quarter by Quarter Scores
Tigers vs Slingers
1st Q: 15-21
2nd Q: 14-20
3rd Q: 13-15
4th Q: 38-36

Thailand Tigers Game Box Score

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score

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