The Singapore Slingers’ hard-fought 87-81 victory over a strong Chang Thailand Slammers team on Sunday was a good send-off for the team’s only extended road trip of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) regular season.

“(The victory was) great because we have got two tough games on the road, and when we’re back, we will be playing against the (Philippine) Patriots, so we really needed this win,” said Slingers head coach Neo Beng Siang.

The Slingers will play Indonesian side Satria Muda BritAma this Saturday on November 6th, and then in Brunei against the Barracudas four days later. Both the Slingers’ opponents currently have the league’s worst record of only one win in five matches.

The Slingers will then return home and face the league-leading Patriots team two Sundays from now. The defending ABL champions are currently the only unbeaten team in the league.

“The win has helped our morale going into the Satria Muda game. It’s on their home court, so anything can happen, because of the travelling or players’ on and off performance,” continued Neo.

The match against Satria Muda will be the Slingers’ third attempt at a road win this season, and Neo’s mind was set on breaking his team’s winless away streak.

“The game will be tough but we’re looking forward to it, because we need to get at least an away win. We have already lost two away games.”

First-year Slinger Ng Han Bin was doubly optimistic about his team’s chances in the road trip after the victory against a tough opposition like the Slammers, their third straight at home.

“I’m sure we can get both wins. This win will certainly have boosted our confidence because the Slammers could actually be top of the table if not for their previous loss.”

Han Bin was instrumental in the win despite seeing only nine minutes of action. He made a crucial three-pointer in the fourth quarter which gave the Slingers a six-point cushion. It was a lead they never let slip despite several Slammer runs, and an advantage they managed to maintain till the final whistle.

“I felt great that I finally made my shot, because the shots you make determine your minutes, so I need to hit them when I’m open.”

The game was a three-point festival with both teams making 10 shots each from behind the arc, tying a Slingers team record. Slammers centre Jason Dixon, who made his first ever ABL three pointer, was among nine different players who sank long-range shots. However, none stood out more than Slingers’ hotshot Leonidez Avenido, who made five threes to boost his league-leading total to 22 in only five games.

“If he can shoot like that every night, it’s definitely good for us,” said centre Kyle Jeffers, on Avenido’s exceptional three-point shooting display. “Every time that ball goes in, it’s always a good thing.”

Neo was not surprised that Avenido was finding success beyond the three-point line. He said: “I expected that because he shoots the ball well. He felt confident on that, and when he gets open, he doesn’t think twice, and just shoots it. He has given us a lot this year, so we’re proud of him.”

The game featured 18 lead changes and 10 ties, and neither team led by double digits. The team which finishes such a game stronger almost always clinches it, and on Sunday, it was the Slingers.

“Leo (Avenido) is always encouraging us, and leading us by example,” said Han Bin. “Everyone just encouraged each other, so we were very motivated towards the end.”

The 15-game regular season is already a third completed, and team captain Jeffers is pleased with how things are shaping up in the Slingers camp.

“Everything is working its way through. We’re finding out what we’re good at, and what we need to work on, and I think pretty much we’re on the right track.”

“We just need to fine tune a couple more details, like being strong with the ball and less turnovers, and that will definitely help us to score the ball a little bit more. I think as long as we continue to improve on those little things, we will continue to move on the winning track.”

The Satria Muda team, featuring leading scorer Marcus Morrison, stands in the way of a first winning streak this season for the Slingers. Morrison broke two ABL records in his first league game, a 93-94 loss to the Slingers on the opening weekend. He made a league-record seven three pointers en route to 34 points, and will no doubt be on the minds of the Slingers defence.

“We have to shut Morrison down,” said Slingers defensive specialist Desmond Oh matter-of-factly. “Defence is the most important thing.”

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sunday, October 31, 2010 – Leonidez Avenido equaled his ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) career-high when he poured in 30 points as the Singapore Slingers edged out the Thailand Slammers 87-81 in a close, feisty contest.

The Filipino, who scored 30 points against the Slingers last season while playing for the Brunei Barracudas, continued his early-season display of long range prowess when he drained 5 of 11 three-pointers.

“As always, it’s luck! Maybe that’s my lucky word, that’s why I’m lucky!” remarked the 31-year-old after the game. He has now made five three-pointers in each of the three home games this season, and had previously attributed his accuracy to good fortune.

Avenido came into the game leading the league in three-pointers made with 17. He needed just one to surpass his total from last season, but had three in a 93-second span in the first period to tie the game at 16, after the visitors had taken two separate seven-point leads early on.

“He definitely kept us in the game in the first half. We need him to continue to be an outstanding scorer,” said Slingers captain Kyle Jeffers, who was excellent himself with his fifth straight double-double of 18 points and 15 rebounds.

Local lad Steven Khoo brought the Slingers level after one quarter with a tip-in at the buzzer, and combined with Jeffers and Avenido for a 10-3 run to open the second period. The Slammers responded with seven unanswered points to make it 28-28, as they exploited the Slingers’ lack of transition defence.

Both teams then traded leads six times before a Jason Dixon three-point play and Piyapong Piroon trey, one of his afternoon’s four, enabled the Slammers to open up a five-point, 38-33 lead. Avenido’s 17th and 18th point on a pull-up jumper completed the first half scoring, which marked the first time this season at the Singapore Indoor Stadium that the home team had trailed at the break.

The visitors again opened a seven-point advantage when point guard Froilan Baguion rebounded Ardy Larong’s miss to score, but Jeffers and power forward Marcus Skinner, who scored 15 points and had five rebounds, led the comeback trail with seven consecutive points between them, the last two coming after excellent ball movement from Desmond Oh, Steven and Jeffers found the American centre for an easy two to tie the game at 46 apiece.

The scores remained tied after three quarters, and although the Slammers did not lead again after Sopon Pinitpatcharalert’s third trey of the afternoon gave the Slammers a 61-60 advantage with 9 minutes and 31 seconds to play, they responded to every Slinger run.

Slingers’ point guard Al Vergara, who had 11 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals, broke a 70-all tie with his third three-pointer of the game, and first-year Slinger Ng Han Bin followed with a corner trey which doubled the lead.

Skinner’s breakaway layup made it 78-70 to the Slingers with less than three and a half minutes to play, but the Thai team would not go away quietly. Back to back treys from Baguion and Chris Kuete, the league’s second leading scorer coming into the game but was hugely a non-factor, made it a two-point game, but Avenido responded in kind with his fifth of the game.

Dixon’s hook shot with 55 seconds to play reduced the Slinger lead to three, but his team’s comeback trail was finally curtailed when Skinner rebounded Vergara’s miss to score, plus the foul.

Skinner missed the ensuing free throw, but Vergara came up with the loose ball at mid court, and the resulting play saw Skinner fouled again as he scored. This time, he completed the three-point play to give the Slingers an insurmountable 86-78 lead with only 23 seconds to play.

Dixon had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead four Slammers players in double figures. Piroon had 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals, while Kuete and Pinitpatcharalert added 13 points each. They matched the Slingers with 10 three pointers, but gave up a huge 25-9 gulf in free throw attempts.

With the win, the Slingers’ third straight at home, they improve to a 3-2 win-loss record and leap-frog over the Slammers into second place in the ABL league table. The Slammers have the same record after losing their second game in a row, but are in third place because of an inferior head-to-head record with the Slingers.

“(This win) keeps our winning streak alive at home. We have to stay strong at home, because the road games outweigh the home games by one, so every home game is crucial. Now we just have to put it together on the road,” said Jeffers.

“It was a big win tonight. Every game at home is big. But now it’s on to the next one.”

The Slingers will next play Indonesian team Satria Muda BritAma in Jakarta on November 6, while the Slammers will attempt to get back to their winning ways with a home game against KL Dragons a day later.

Go to next page for more stats and photos

The Singapore Slingers will travel to Jakarta on Tuesday for Game 2 of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) semi-final play-offs on the back of a resounding 87-68 victory over Satria Muda BritAma in the opening game yesterday, but will go there wary, cautious, and knowing that they have to bring their ‘A’ game once again in order to come out tops.

“It’s not going to be easy. Satria Muda have shown that they are a resilient team, and no matter what happens in the previous game they will always come out strong,” said backup centre Pathman Matialakan.

“They have home-court advantage, and the fans are going to be behind them. We got to keep ourselves calm and work on a few things, because playing at home and on the road is not the same. Coach will come out with a plan for us, and as players all we have to do is to execute.”

Little went wrong for the Slingers in Game 1. They controlled the boards, stayed out of foul trouble, shot the ball well and were active on defence, while the Indonesian team were overwhelmed and their American imports, Alexander Hartman and Nakiea Miller, were visibly frustrated at the proceedings.

“I think we prepared really well. I thought we tried to have confidence, which I thought was good. The start was good. We understood that they would fight back, and that’s what good teams will do in the finals,” said Slingers head coach Frank Arsego, on how well things panned out for his charges.

“But we hung in there. We had a bit of a problem against the zone. We haven’t play against much zone lately, so that was a bit of an adjustment.”

He identified two key aspects of Game 2, which will be played on Wednesday, February 3. “Being able to defend on the road. We’ve worked extremely hard this year to understand what it takes to perform well on the road, and our 4-3 win-loss record is the best in the league. So we’ve learnt some good things.”

He continued, “I think apart from the defensive side of things, is to be able to handle the emotional environment that we’ll be in when you’re playing away, in a big game. We had that when we played Brunei in the second-to-last game. It was full-on. But the boys responded beautifully. I think we’ve had some of that experience and I’m hoping that it’ll help us when we get to Jakarta.”

“But there’s no question that we have to play our best game to get a win over there. We haven’t really done that in our last two games there, but we’ll be there giving it our best shot.”

The Slingers eked out a 61-59 road win against Satria Muda on November 14 last year despite trailing by 10 with three minutes to play, but were well-beaten 67-58 a month later when they met again at the BritAma arena.

Then, Slingers top-scorer Michael LeBlanc had his worst game of the season, missing all ten of his shots and scoring a season-low six points. And he acknowledged that the team could not take a 1-0 series lead for granted.

“It will be tough in Indonesia. We just have to do the things that we do well. We are one of the few teams that have a winning record in the league and that’s because we have mental toughness and cohesiveness. In the face of adversity, we don’t give up and find a way to get things done.”

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sunday, January 31, 2010 – There is something about playing Satria Muda BritAma at home in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) that brings the best out of the Singapore Slingers.

The Slingers shot 51.6% from the field and made 13 consecutive free throws in an 87-68 victory over the Jakarta-based team in Game 1 of the ABL semi-final playoffs. This was the second heavy defeat suffered by Satria Muda at the hands of the Slingers in the same arena, the first being the 34-point rout on November 1 last year when the home team shot a league-high 63.5% from the field.

Michael LeBlanc led the Slingers with 22 points, 10 rebounds and five steals, and Kyle Jeffers added 21 points and 10 rebounds as all five starters reached double figures.

Satria Muda’s Alexander Hartman needed 21 shots to score his 21 points, while Nakiea Miller had 18 points and 13 rebounds, but tied an ABL record with eight turnovers, as their team made only 34% of their shots in a game where they were always second-best.

“We’ve already played three games against them, and this was our fourth. We know a lot about this team. We did a lot of homework, watched a lot of videos, and basically know their weaknesses,” said backup centre Pathman Matialakan.

“As the home team in the first play-off game, we wanted to come out aggressive. That was the key today. Coach (Frank Arsego) wanted us to come out aggressive, be on the front foot and take the game to them, and that’s what we did. They never recovered from it.”

Point guard and floor general Al Vergara opened the scoring with a lay up plus the foul, but missed the ensuing free throw. That proved to be the only miss from the charity stripe until the fourth quarter when Marcus Ng failed to convert. In between, the Slingers, the worst of the four play-off teams in free throw accuracy at 55.9%, made 13 consecutive shots from the line, while establishing a double-digit lead and never allowing Satria Muda into the contest.

The key to that was keeping Hartman and Miller in check. Marcus and Jeffers were the respective ones ear-marked for that role for most of the match, and performed admirably against the pair of teammates who have collectively scored 45% of their team’s points in the regular season.

Marcus, who is among the league leaders in fouls per game, finally stayed out of foul trouble and bothered Hartman into a six of 21 shooting performance from the field, while adding 10 points and six rebounds of his own in a standout performance.

“Marcus did a great job on him. He stays in front of him, and is active. Marcus just has to continue to do what he does,” said Jeffers as he praised his teammate’s effort.

“He’s an excellent defender, and I think Hartman has a hard time trying to play against him. He’s going to hit his shots, but for the most part, he’s not going to have a great night against Marcus. Not many people have great nights against Marcus, unless he’s in foul trouble, then they might get off. But Marcus is a solid defender against Hartman.”

Jeffers himself restricted Miller to below his league-leading 20.7 points per game average, as the latter’s lateral quickness in his post moves was simply not enough to carry his team. Jeffers was modest when asked to appraise his match-up with Miller, saying, “I’ll let the stats speak for themselves. We’re both pretty solid under the basket, and I think it’s a fair matchup for both teams. It’s just whoever has the better night.”

The Satria Muda centre eventually fouled out with three and a half minutes to go, with his team trailing by 20 and showing little fight in them.

They did keep the game close in the first half, and after Pathman made two free throws to hand the Slingers a 29-17 lead with six minutes left in the half, Satria Muda restricted the home team to just a solitary field goal over the next four minutes, and tied the game at 31 when Jeffers goal-tended Rony Gunawan’s lay up.

Satria Muda trailed by only four at the break, but the Slingers, aided by the Hong Wei Jian’s energetic second-half display, extended the lead into double-digits as their opponents continued their inept shooting display.

Wei Jian drew two pivotal fouls from Miller, made all four of his free throws and drew special mention from coach Arsego. “We brought him in, in that third quarter, and he was just aggressive, got some free throws, lay ups, and challenged Miller. I’m very proud of him. That was the little spark we needed just to kick on and see whether they would respond. I think they found it hard.”

Jeffers beat the third-quarter buzzer with a turnaround jumper to make it a 62-51 Slinger lead, and then the game turned into a rout soon after. LeBlanc led the way with a couple of three-point plays, and scored half of his game-high 22 points in the final period.

A 14-3 run, highlighted by Jeffers’ one-handed put-back slam, over the first four minutes of the quarter extended the lead into its twenties. Steven Khoo’s lay up gave the Slingers their largest lead of the game at 23, as the home team played with their second unit to close out the game.

Game Two of the best-of-three series will be played in Jakarta on Wednesday, February 3, and if necessary, a third game will take place back in the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Sunday, February 7. But as far as the Slingers’ Pathman is concerned, they will hope to avoid playing a Game 3.

“We’re not looking forward to coming back here (for Game 3). We want to finish the game off in Indonesia, and come back for a good rest. But all we’re thinking of is the game on Wednesday. That’s it.”

Quarter by Quarter Scores
Slingers vs Satria Muda
1st Q: 16-13
2nd Q: 19-18
3rd Q: 27-20
4th Q: 25-17

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score

Satria Muda BritAma Game Box Score

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Game-highs (Team)

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Game-lows (Team)

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Game-highs (Individual)

In Red Hoops’ second part of the 2009/10 ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) Season Review, team defence is the focus.

The Brunei Barracudas may have averaged the most points per game (78.9), but they have also allowed the most (82.3 points per game). If we take a closer look at point differential (points scored minus points allowed) for each team, we would have a clearer picture of how each team manages their points at both ends of the court.

Barracudas: -3.4
Dragons: -4.0
Patriots: +5.5
Satria Muda: +2.9
Slingers: +3.4
Tigers: -4.4

They would rank as they are on the league standings, except that the Barracudas and Dragons have swapped places.

The Patriots have the stingiest defence in the league, allowing opponents to make only 37.6% of their shots from the field. Their opponents’ three-point field goal percentage of 28.7% is also a squeak under the league-leading 28.5% by the Tigers.

Opponents are most likely to have a block party at the Slingers’ expense, as they have rejected 64 of the team’s shots, 11 more than Satria Muda which is next to last.

The Slingers drew the most fouls in the league (20.5 per game), and also lead the league in rebounding differential.

Barracudas: -4.5
Dragons: -3.5
Patriots: +3.2
Satria Muda: +1.6
Slingers: +4.7
Tigers: -1.5

Check back tomorrow when we will go through the ABL game highs for individual and team.

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Team Defence

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Team Defence

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Team Defence

After 45 matches played over the course of more than three months, the inaugural ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) regular season has come to a close.

This region finally has a professional basketball league to call our own, and we’ve seen our fair share of thrills and spills as the six teams battled for league supremacy and a coveted play-off spot.

We now know the identities of the four teams taking part in the 2009/10 post-season, but before the first match tips off on Sunday, January 31, here are some number-crunching information about all six teams.

You may know that Satria Muda’s star centre Nakiea Miller led the league in scoring, rebounds and blocks, but do you know which team is ahead in those categories?

The Patriots have clinched first position in the league (and home-court advantage throughout the play-offs), but which aspect of the numbers game are they the weakest in?

Stay tuned to find out all these, and much more, as Red Hoops brings you the first installment of the 2009/10 ABL statistical season review.

Knock yourself out.

Team Offence:

Let’s start with team offence. The Singapore Slingers led the league in field goal and three-point field goal percentage (although they took the least number of shots in both categories), but are second from bottom in free throw percentage, making only 55.9% of their league-high 338 attempts from the charity stripe. Steven Khoo and Al Vergara led the league in individual field goal and three-point field goal percentage over the course of the season.

The Brunei Barracudas were one of the better shooting teams in the league, ranking second in FG% and 3FG%, and third in FT%, but their accuracy will not be seen in the post-season as the team finished fifth, and out of a play-off spot.

Satria Muda BritAma paced the league in rebounds, steals and blocks per game. Miller was the runaway individual league leader in the rebounds and blocks, particularly in the latter category. He blocked more shots (41) than three teams could manage.

Miller also led his team in steals and was ably aided in this department by Alexander Hartman and Faisal Julius.

The Thailand Tigers finished bottom of the league and may have been hurt by their lack of ball movement and retaining of possession. They were last in assists and turnovers per game.

The KL Dragons made a brilliant late push for the play-offs and were rewarded when they won three of their final four matches. They ranked second in the league in free throw shooting accuracy (66.4%) and shot 81% (47 of 58) in those three vital victories.

Free throw shooting will definitely come into play during the play-offs and the Dragons will look to use their hot shooting from the charity stripe to their advantage. The flip side is that they will play a Philippine Patriots team that leads the league in this discipline.

The league leaders also had the most assists (14.7 per game), and racked up the most fouls in the league (21 per game).

Check back tomorrow when we will have the statistical breakdown of team defence.

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Team Offence

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Team Offence

ABL 2009/10 Regular Season Stats: Team Offence

The BritAma Arena, Jakarta, Saturday, January 23, 2010 – After three attempts, the KL Dragons (KLD) of Malaysia were finally able to beat Indonesia’s Satria Muda BritAma (SMB) 70-67 in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).

It was an important win for the Dragons as they climbed to the fourth and final play-off spot, ahead of the Brunei Barracudas, in the league standings.

The starters for SMB were Nakiea Miller, Alex Hartman, Youbel Sondakh, Christian Sitepu and Mario Wuysang, while KLD started with Jamal Brown, Chris Kuete, Rudy Lingganay, Fhadzmir Bandaying and John Ng.

Throughout the game, the imports figured in several one-on-one matchups. Jamal Brown was up against Nakiea Miller while Chris Kuete faced Alex Hartman. Brown and Miller got entangled several times at the low-post and with the taller Miller getting the better of Brown, the latter changed his strategy and started hoisting up three-pointers, but with only 33% of success.

Miller continued to have his way until the Dragons started to double-team him. Hartman and Kuete also ended up guarding each other, and although Kuete was out-scored by Hartman, Kuete quietly delivered impressive numbers, shooting almost 65% with three assists and four steals.

The most exciting periods of the game were during the last five minutes of the first quarter, and the last six minutes of the fourth. The first quarter saw SMB leading throughout, taking advantage while the Dragons were still adjusting and trying to figure out their way around.

Things started to turn around when Guganeswaran Batumalai of KLD made two free throws, which were his only points of the game, with 2:37 remaining in the quarter.

From then on, the Dragons were pretty much in control of the game until the last six minutes of the game when Hartman hit a three-point shot to tie the game at 60, and exciting the home crowd. Brown then answered with his fourth three-pointer of the night and Lingganay made a difficult lay-up in traffic to extend the lead to five at 65-60.

Both teams then couldn’t buy a bucket for almost two minutes until Miller split his free throws, and scored another two points after the shot clock expired on the Dragons possession to cut the Dragon lead to two points.

Another split at the charity stripe by Miller inched them closer by one point, but Lingganay hit a fall-away jumper from around 16 feet near the free-throw line to again extend the lead to three points. But another three-point bomb by Hartman in the following possession tied the game at 67, leading to loud cheers erupting from the home crowd.

After a Dragon timeout, SMB employed a full-court man-to-man pressure defense which resulted in a steal by Amin Prihantono, but he could not hold on to the ball and committed a travelling violation that led to Guganeswaran setting up Loh Shee Fai for a three-point shot with 53 seconds left.

Like a fairytale script, Loh’s only three-pointer of the game turned out to be the game-winning shot after neither team could make a shot in the final minute though Miller did miss a crucial dying seconds shot.

The game could have been won and lost at the free throw line. Although the Dragons only went to the line 11 times, they converted 10 of those into points, while SMB shot 24 free throws but made only 14, a 58% conversion rate.

Before tip-off, Dragons’ coach Goh Cheng Huat emphasized that they needed to concentrate on their defense if they wanted to win the game.

“I’m relieved, but I was not looking beyond this game and was not thinking about the playoffs before the game”, coach Goh remarked after the game.

He added: “If we don’t make it to the playoffs, we can’t blame the other teams’ results, it is also our fault that we didn’t win enough games (to secure a place in the playoffs).”

Satria Muda BritAma Game Box Score

KL Dragons Game Box Score

MABA Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Sunday, January 17, 2010 – The KL Dragons went local, and then went loco – Spanish for crazy – from three-point range, as they made 10 treys in beating the Singapore Slingers 78-71 to stay alive in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) playoff hunt.

Loh Shee Fai kept up his hot shooting against the Slingers and led the Dragons with 17 points on six of seven shooting. Little-used forward John Ng, who scored only four points all season long, added 12 and Guganeswaran Batumalai chipped in with 11, as the local-born players contributed 48 of the team’s points.

Michael LeBlanc overcame a slow start to lead the Slingers with 19 points, and Kyle Jeffers added 17 points and 10 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season, but the team had scant reply for their opponent’s red-hot shooting.

An 8-0 Slinger run capped by Al Vergara’s baseline jumper gave the visitors a 16-8 lead with less than four minutes to go in the first quarter, but 10 straight points by the Dragons swung the momentum firmly in their favour. John scored five points and Shee Fai added a trey to the delight of the capacity 2000-strong crowd in the MABA Stadium, which was packed to the brim and had to turn more supporters away.

The home fans had more to cheer for in this final home game for the Dragons. The team led 24-18 after the first period and shot above 50% from the field in the second, as they nearly tripled that first quarter advantage after John’s dribble and lay up past a static Pathman Matialakan gave the Dragons a 17-point, 42-25 lead.

John was doing it at the other end of the floor as well, keeping LeBlanc, the Slingers’ leading scorer at 18.5 points a game, in check with three points on only two shots at the half, which the Dragons led 44-31.

Chris Kuete, who is also leading the Dragons in scoring with 18.5 points a game, was having as ineffectual a game as LeBlanc at that stage, missing all six of his shots. Both finally came to life in the third quarter, but the difference was that the Cameroonian had help from his teammates.

LeBlanc had six of the Slingers’ first nine third-quarter points, but Kuete scored nine straight for the Dragons, who kept up their high shooting percentage from the field. The lively Guga, who had a massive game with 11 points, five rebounds, eight assists and four steals, became the sixth Dragon to make his mark from downtown, and John then capped the 15-9 run with another long-range dagger to extend their lead to 19, the largest of the game.

The Dragons finished the third period with nine three pointers on 18 attempts, and on pace to threaten the ABL single-game record of 14 three-pointers. They led 66-49 after half an hour, but cooled off considerably in the final quarter as the Slingers fought to make a game of it.

They impressively restricted the Dragons to a measly one field goal in the final period, and closed to within 11 after Vergara found Marcus with one of his season-high tying eight assists to make it 67-56, but Shee Fai scored that field goal – appropriately a three-pointer – when he banked in one from beyond the arc as the shot clock expired.

That dagger shot capped another strong shooting performance against the Slingers for the 21-year old who had just celebrated his birthday yesterday, and he has now made 12 of 15 shots against the Singapore team in three games.

The Slingers finally got it down to single-digits with 2:40 to play on LeBlanc’s lay up which reduced the deficit to nine, but the Dragons survived several empty possessions and nervy turnovers by running the clock out and making their free throws. They converted nine of 12 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter to make up for their dismal output from the field, and saw the game out to the delight of the home crowd.

The Slingers, who have already clinched a playoff spot, fell to 8-5 in the win-loss column. A win would have confirmed at least second position in the league standings, and home-court advantage in the semi-finals, but they will now have to win one of their two remaining games to be assured of that.

The Dragons, meanwhile, improve to 6-8, although another win by the Brunei Barracudas, who have two games to play, would eliminate them from playoff contention.

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score

KL Dragons Game Box Score

For more game pics, click here.

Join the Red Crew of Erwin Wong and Jan Lin for the live play-by-play commentary of the match at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.