After five months and 53 games of the maiden ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) season, the league is clearly still imperfect in many ways, but in the end, what mattered most was that ASEAN basketballers proved to be a delight to watch.

Many ASEAN basketball fans have grown up living and breathing the NBA (National Basketball Association) but not many would know that the NBA’s success did not happen overnight and in fact the world’s most popular basketball league was bereft of attention in its first decade.

Yet through the NBA came the invention of the 24-second shot clock that not only breathed life into the league, it revolutionised the entire game altogether. So it is with ABL, it may be uncertain now what changes this league could bring but the signs are already promising.

“Through this ABL, my local players have improved a lot,” said KL Dragons head coach Goh Cheng Huat. “In fact all the local players from Indonesia and Singapore have stepped up. The way I look at it, some of them have caught up with the standard of the Filipino imports.”

Unbeknownst to many, unlike the imports, most local cagers face the challenge of juggling this professional basketball gig and their long-term marketplace career. Currently amongst the local cagers, there are teachers, engineers, undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Brunei Barracudas’ top local player, 25-year-old Esmond Tan, who is an engineer with Shell, said: “Coach Ramos has tried to adjust the trainings for me in the morning and in the evening when I can join the team for trainings. I’m proud of the local players, I kept telling my local players to be ready and we will get the chance to play. We have been improving.”

Filipino coach Bong Ramos, who has extensive coaching experience across ASEAN (in Philippines, Indonesia and now Brunei), echoed coach Goh’s sentiments, he said: “Filipinos have the advantage against any of the ASEAN locals but, because of ABL I think the locals of all Southeast Asian nations will improve because this is a good league for the locals.”

“Except the Filipinos, ABL is the first professional stint for many locals,” coach Ramos added, “but to narrow the gap [between Philippines and the rest of ASEAN] is not only this league, it’s also the training and having a college league like Philippines’ NCAA/UAAP is important.”

A key indicator of the league’s maiden success was how it has managed to attract the top ASEAN coaches. Besides coach Ramos and coach Goh, who are both highly regarded in Philippines and Malaysia respectively, the coaches of the finalists – Fictor Roring of Satria Muda and Louie Alas of Philippine Patriots – are both household names as well.

Coach Alas gave a tongue-in-cheek sharing on why he joined the ABL, he said: “I was coaching Toyota Altis in the Philippine Basketball League while Mikee (Patriots owner) is the owner of Harbour Centre. We fought them twice in the PBL Championship and we lost both times. That’s why when Mikee called me to coach the Patriots, I agreed right away because there is a saying, ‘If you can’t beat them, you join them!’”

Patriots went on to assert their dominance in the league to lift the inaugural title with a 5-0 playoff run, sweeping the KL Dragons 2-0 in the semi-finals and Satria Muda 3-0 in the finals. During the regular season, Patriots beat every team in head-to-head match-ups except the Slingers, which was the only team with a non-ASEAN marshal.

Slingers’ head coach Frank Arsego, who has announced he will not be returning next season so as to spend more time with his family in Canberra, gave his two cents on how local players can be successful through the ABL.

“Listen to your coaches, learn from your coaches, try to be in an environment where you can learn your skills in competition. The players who make it, are the ones who do the extra work outside of their normal environment, they are the ones who go on to be successful,” he said.

To raise their game, the Australian coach shared how the local players have to work extremely hard to be corrected in their techniques and be grounded in high quality fundamentals to execute them under pressure.

Coach Frank shared: “We work very hard during practice to stimulate an environment where there is a lot of pressure where their decision-making under pressure will improve as they go along, and that’s what the good players can do. We’ve got local guys in Slingers, who just through their work ethics have deserved the opportunity to be with the Slingers and because of that, they are going to become better basketballers.”

While many did step up for their teams over the season, Jan has picked the top two locals who have been a surprise ‘spark’ for their team in the 09/10 ABL season and the six local young guns to look out for in the next season. Enjoy!

ABL 09/10 Top Local ‘Spark’ (Playoff and Finals): Rony Gunawan (Satria Muda)

Rony Gunawan was the local name that stood out in the ABL finals between Satria Muda and the Philippine Patriots. While the four American imports were engrossed in a battle of attrition, the Indonesian center completely outclassed the other locals in the finals.

With both Hartman and Miller pinned down by the Patriots’ tough defense, Rony rose from the rubble to finish the game one with 10 points, eight rebounds (55.6% shooting percentage), the second game with 15 points, seven rebounds (58.3% shooting percentage), and top-scored in the final game with 20 points, seven rebounds (72.7% shooting percentage).

Rony’s finals performance epitomised how it is possible for locals to shine and make a statement for themselves amidst the import-driven league.

“Coach gave me a lot minutes to play so I just played and gave my all,” said Rony reflecting on his stunning finals showing that had breathed hope into his team. “I trusted myself and my team mates, and I’ve got nothing to lose because the pressure was not on my team.”

“I think the skills of the local players are not so far from the imports,” said Rony who also shared he looks up to NBA’s Tim Duncan. “Maybe we lose out in size and the strength, but actually we can compete with the imports if we trust ourselves and not fear them.”

“Local players can do more!” said Rony on a concluding note. “They mostly face the problem of confidence and are a bit afraid to play when there is hard, body contact with the imports. But I think the more often they play in this league, they will get used to that, and get better.”

ABL 09/10 Top Local ‘Spark’ (Regular Season): Attaporn Lertmalaiporn (Thailand Tigers)

If numbers do not lie, then without a doubt, Bangkok-born Attaporn Lertmalaiporn is not only Thailand’s best kept secret, his 223 points (14.9 points per game) score card meant that he was the top-scoring local player and not at all inferior to an American import.

Besides being a menacing scoring machine, the left-handed Attaporn was also a natural entertainer with his unorthodox style of play.

“I feel that the way I play has to do with my personality,” said Attaporn who is also pursuing a Masters degree in Physical Education in Thailand concurrently. “I’m a fun-loving person and I feel that my style of basketball has to be enjoyable and entertaining to the spectators.”

“I’ve been playing basketball for 12 years but this is my first time playing in a professional league,” added the 1.93m tall Attaporn. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I’ve learnt a lot from the imports and I feel that having them around, my game has improved a lot.”

And finally, the top local young gun of each team to look out for in the next season:

Brunei Barracudas: Esmond Tan

KL Dragons: Loh Shee Fai

Nonoy Baclao (Philippine Patriots)

Christian Ronaldo Sitepu (Satria Muda)

Hong Wei Jian (Singapore Slingers)

Ratdech Kruatiwa (Thailand Tigers)

Editor’s Note: This has been a maiden season of surprises and here’s a shout of thanks to Leslie and Dawn for the opportunity to cover this league; the REDcrew for working so hard under my Cruella-complex; the ABL coaches who taught me heaps about the game; the ABL players for tolerating my endless questions; and the readers for your love-hate relationship with my stories. Enjoy the other stories coming up, til we next “meet”. (jan@redhoops.com)

Kuhan Foo, the chief executive officer of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), has revealed that the league will know by April the status of new teams coming on board for the 2010/11 season. He also pointed out that for the existing teams to survive, teams will need to learn to market themselves well.

“The challenge I think is getting teams to market themselves and finding the major support, sponsors, pulling in more crowd and creating a basketball culture,” shared Kuhan at the post-finals press conference.

“We know it is possible,” Kuhan added, “if we look at KL Dragons for example in Malaysia where the crowd is usually Chinese and men, but now their crowd has 40% Malays, 30% women because of the ABL.”

Four of the six ABL teams in the inaugural season are new teams set up in conjunction with the inception of the ABL. Only Indonesia’s Satria Muda BritAma and the Singapore Slingers are existing professional teams with the experience of engaging the community.

It has indeed proven to be a challenge for the new teams to fill the stadiums on game day. Thailand Tigers and Philippine Patriots gave free entry to their home games in a bid to draw in the crowds and drum up the support in their first season.

While the Thailand Tigers, who finished at the bottom of the table in the inaugural season, struggled to bring in the home crowd all season, the Patriots crowd picked up significantly towards the playoffs and finals.

The KL Dragons, singled out by Kuhan as the role model for having done an exceptional job in expanding and diversifying their fan base in their maiden season, credited their fans and media partners for their success.

“I don’t think other teams can do so because they don’t have Malaysian blood in them!” the KL Dragons owners said jokingly when asked how they managed to pack their stadium to the point of having to turn away spectators.

Turning serious, they continued: “I think to be fair, this game, except for Philippines, is quite new to other countries, including Malaysia. I think if you look at any leagues when they have just started, even the NBA, the English Premier League, the crowds were not there either.”

“It takes time to develop these things,” they added. “Give it time to slowly grow, it’s about creating the awareness. It has a lot to do with our media partners as well, we need to say a big thank you to them.”

Besides a massive revamp of their dynamic website mid-season and heavy utilisation of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the Kuala Lumpur-based team also organised road trips for their fans to Singapore for their away games.

Indonesia’s Satria Muda is the only other team that had fans travel to an away game. Satria Muda, who have the most number of fans of all the ABL teams, have been actively building their fan base since the team joined the Indonesian Basketball League in 2003. Satria Muda have won four domestic titles since, plus the SEABA Champions Cup in 2008.

Philippine Patriots owner, Mikee Romero, who also owns the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) team, Harbour Center, the team that Satria Muda beat in the 2008 SEABA Champions Cup final, said after the ABL finals: “When we (Harbour Center) played against Satria Muda two years ago, it was a very different team. The level of Indonesian basketball has become higher.”

While the team’s success and progress will be a crowd puller, according to Kuhan, what is essentially more important is the building of a basketball culture, or a culture of identifying ABL as ASEAN’s pride.

While the Philippines have built an unrivaled basketball culture, elsewhere in ASEAN, Malaysians and Indonesians would not find local sporting pride unfamiliar too, with their history of having homegrown athletes claiming top honours at international competitions such as the Olympics.

But for the rest of ASEAN, building a strong fan base that would attract sponsors and support to ensure the sustainability and survivability of the team does seem like a mountain-moving task. The teams taking ownership of the ABL dream is the instrumental first step.

“This finals is the fruit of the ABL dream,” shared Mikee Romero at the post-finals press conference in Jakarta. “It is a common dream of Tony Fernandes and his friends (who became the owners of the six teams). There are a lot of people backing this.”

“And one day, we will grow into Asia and this league will become a big, big league,” Romero continued in zest, “and maybe even rival the NBA (National Basketball Association) or CBL (China Basketball League). Watch out for this league.”

Though the winning team of the inaugural ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) hailed from basketball powerhouse Philippines, both the coaches of Satria Muda BritAma and the Philippine Patriots asserted that it was the imports that separated the two sides and gave Patriots the victory.

“The imports [would] make the difference to how successful the team will be,” said both coach Louis Alas of the Patriots and coach Fictor Roring of Satria Muda unanimously after Game 3 of the ABL finals series where Patriots beat Satria Muda 75-67 to lift the league’s maiden title.

Despite a rousing start in the first period, where Satria Muda seized an early lead, Satria Muda’s American import Nakiea Miller suffered an eye injury caused by Patriot Jerwin Gaco half-way through the first period and this disrupted the hosts’ scoring momentum. Even though the 6-foot-10 American was reintroduced into the game in the second period, his role was relegated to just that of a scarecrow.

“I had to take Nakiea out for five to 10 minutes after he went down and even when he got back he was having problems with his vision,” coach Roring told Red Hoops. “But I told him to just stand there, the rest of the players will feel more confident just knowing he’s on the court.”

“But to beat Patriots, that was not enough. We need Nakiea,” coach Roring said matter-of-factly. As it was, Miller scored only three points in the first half courtesy of the sole 3-pointer before he was wounded, and he found the basket only twice in the second half.

While Miller finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, his usual partner-in-crime Alex Hartman, who completed the inaugural season as the league’s top scorer with 378 points (18 points per game), contributed only 14 points on Sunday and blamed himself for shooting poorly.

“But to be honest, I am feeling tired,” said the 25-year-old who holds both Canadian and American citizenship. He let out that he has never felt such strain in the previous ABL games. “My team really needed me to push the ball in this game because our point guards were struggling and I think that took a lot out of me.”

“Hartman can definitely do better than this just as he has done so in Singapore during the playoffs but it’s because Freeman limited him in the finals,” said coach Roring. “But despite that, I think my locals have been able to play well not just in this game but in the last few games too – and also not only Rony – Prihantono and Youbel all stepped up too.”

30-year-old Rony Gunawan completed a hat-trick of stellar performance in the ABL finals by finishing as the top scorer of his team in the third game with 20 points and seven rebounds. Rony was coach Roring’s MVP for this game, though the Indonesian coach picked Miller as his MVP for this season because of his all-round contribution throughout the season.

In the regular season, Miller topped the score boards in points per game, rebounds and blocks, and he was second in turnovers and third in steals.

“But I’m still pleased with my two imports on the whole,” coach Roring said. “It’s hard to play against Patriots who have three imports (counting Fil-Am Rob Wainwright). Dixon killed us, Freeman’s rebounds, Wainwright’s 3-pointers. It’s hard to beat a team with imports like that.”

In Jakarta, Patriots released a living demon in the frame of American Jason Dixon, who top-scored with his season high of 28 points and also set a new personal best this season with his 59.1 shooting percentage.

Patriots import, Gabriel Freeman, who has been the man to watch since joining the league late in the season, finished the final game with 17 points, though with a personal low in shooting percentage of 22%. The versatile forward however dominated the boards with 19 rebounds.

“When you have a big man like Dixon who’s so dominant, it takes the load off my shoulder,” said Freeman. “Because I won’t have to enforce myself as much, and when he’s down, I can enforce myself. It’s vice versa for both of us. We take the load off each other’s shoulder.”

“This game I played ok, I missed a lot of shots I would normally make,” said Freeman, who was limited to only six points in the first half. “I think I played my game in the second half, I went in a little bit more and was focused on the defense, I got going on the defense, that’s what I do.”

“My focus wasn’t really all out on Alex in this game,” Freeman added, “but at the same time, I’m a defensive player, so when I come into a game I’m going to be play defense but I still got to put points up. I think as a team we were more organised, we were more prepared. We were intense in the defense and the offense, we weren’t making a lot of shots but we were just up and that’s what won the game for us.”

25-year-old Freeman believed that being able to play with both the locals and with the fellow import is the difference an import has to make for his team. This he has done since coming on board to replaced Brandon Powell to rescue Patriots from a slump just before the playoffs.

Expounding on the difference he made for Patriots, Freeman said: “In a big way I did [make a difference] because Patriots have a big man, you have to play along with your big man and I personally don’t think the import that was previously here could do it.”

“When you’ve got a big guy, you play through your big guy,” Freeman said of the importance of the imports working with each other. “I’m not going to take shots away from him. I’m going to get him shots, I’m going to work around him, do everything around him. I’m going to make sure he touches the ball, I’m going to make sure I play defense for him.”

“And you know what, it’s really about how the imports play with the locals, whether they know how to play with their locals,” Freeman said in response to what would make a team successful in this league and especially to narrow the gap between the teams.

Likewise, Satria Muda’s Hartman also echoed that Miller replacing Theo Little in November 2009 was a spark for the Indonesians. But unlike Patriots, who have immediately expressed their interest to keep their imports, Satria Muda remain ambivalent.

“Based on the finals, I feel that it will be hard to defeat the Patriots with my current team,” said Satria Muda’s head coach Roring. “I will need more ‘bullets’, players who are sharp. There is still time to prepare work on this before the next season starts, so I will have to evaluate the current team before deciding whether to make changes to the team.”

Satria Muda’s top-scoring import Alex Hartman has revealed that he has a trial with the Boston Celtics coming up. In the meantime, he has rushed back to the United States as his grandfather is not well.

“Right now I’m just going to go home, rest, and do some training for the little kids while doing some of my own,” Hartman said, “I just got to get ready for the trials. We’ll see what happens. But now I’ve just got to take a break. Take three weeks off and just relax, get back my legs, no lifting, no shooting. We all need a break sometimes.”

No such dramas for Patriots’ Gabe Freeman though, who will start up with the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) in a fortnight’s time, and the question at the back of everyone’s mind is whether this ball of energy will return to the ABL next season.

Making a comparison between ABL and PBA, Freeman said: “The ABL is totally different because they actually play! It’s contact. PBA is touchy-touch, feely-feel, but ABL literally gets down and dirty, which is what most players like to play and that’s what keeps the game going. But it does get out of control sometimes but that’s part of basketball.”

“I would love to play in both leagues,” he said. “The ABL is amongst the best league I’ve played in judging from the talent level, and we won it, it feels good to be on top. It goes different on money level [between both leagues] but for me it’s not about the money, it’s about the basketball.”

When asked if he will consider playing for a different team in the ABL, Freeman said in front of his coach Louie Alas and team owner Mikee Romero: “I wouldn’t have a reason not to come back here. I’ve got a great coach, great players, my other import Jason Dixon is great.”

“They brought me in and they have done what they are supposed to do, I’ve done what I’m supposed to do,” Freeman continued and made known that beyond the basketball, integrity is just as important. “So I’m going no where, I’m here to stay. I’m loyal to who’s loyal to me.”

With less than 24 hours to the tip off of the inaugural ASEAN Basketball League Finals series between the Philippine Patriots and Satria Muda in Manila, the visitors are not as concerned about playing away from home than they are about playing without heart.

With all the hype surrounding home court advantage, many often forget that the away disadvantage can be minimised and turned into an advantage, just as Satria Muda did in Singapore when an unusually confident Alex Hartman sparked his team off to unleash a braveheart performance.

“I was feeling confident in the first half. I just felt that we need to send a message,” said Hartman whose energy was infectious. “We need to play like we did in Jakarta. If we did right from the jump they would either fall or it would be a close game and it was a close game.”

Like a true Leo, Hartman’s lion heart and appetite was evident in Singapore where he nailed 30 points, including four treys from eight attempts.

The 24-year-old said: “We weren’t confident the last two times we played here (Singapore), we didn’t have a good shooting night, I didn’t have a good shooting night, Nakiea got emotionally out of the last game, we had a lot of turnovers, we just didn’t play team basketball. We went back to Jakarta and I think that was a total boost in everyone’s game and we thought if we play like that we could beat Slingers in Singapore.”

“I’m just happy that in the first half I could do my job and in the second half, Nakiea could do his,” continued Hartman, who had 21 points to his name by the half-time buzzer while fellow import Nakiea Miller managed only two.

Hartman, together with Amin Prihantono, the team’s captain in the domestic league, contributed to the bulk of the scoring before another local-import duo of Miller and ‘Super’ Mario Wuysang stepped up in the second half. Rony Gunawan also made his presence felt in the second half and was formidable in his defense in the crucial final period.

“We really focused on our defence coming into the series,” Wuysang let out. “We didn’t do good in Game 1, but really tightened up in Game 2 and in this last game, so we really focused on our defence.”

Hartman added: “At the beginning we didn’t play that good in defense, we turned it around but the thing is we had other people stepping up. We had Amin stepped up big time in the first half, Mario stepped up in the second half and had a solid game. We just had a lot of people who played with confidence.”

Both Hartman and Wuysang acknowledged that the army of Satria Muda’s fans, who have traveled to Singapore for the game, fueled the team’s display, minimising the away disadvantage.

When asked about the vociferous support from their fans, Wuysang said: “We were surprised about the Indonesian supporters today. We weren’t ready for that. We didn’t expect that. It was good to see it, and it really helped us.”

“The fans were amazing, I felt like Jakarta really came out to support us, we knew they were coming out to support us,” Hartman chipped in. “When you know a lot of people are backing you, you try a little harder and that’s why a lot of people were stepping up and were more confident because a lot of people were backing them up.”

Wuysang further added: “It’s so tough to win here (Singapore). We got beat pretty bad in the first game. And there was a little bit of online trash talking, so we took it kind of personal. It made it a little more personal to us. It definitely was a motivation, and it’s just amazing we could win here.”

Satria Muda’s head coach Fictor Roring also praised Wuysang and Miller’s outstanding contribution in the last quarter and gave special credit to the locals for stepping up when Nakiea Miller lost his cool in the first half after being hurt by Slinger Al Vergara.

“This is what I call team work, the others stepping up so that Nakiea could calm down. When the imports are not well, the locals have to step up and play,” the Indonesian coach shared.

“The Slingers is a great team, they have a great coach who did a great job with them but experience made the difference,” Roring said. “My team is used to this kind of situation, being down in the first game in the series and coming back to win the series just like we did in our IBL (Indonesia Basketball League) last year. It was exactly the same situation.”

“In terms of imports, I think Nakiea and Alex are at the same level with Jeffers and LeBlanc. In this kind of (playoff) situations, the tactics, the strategies are not so important. What is important is playing with the heart,” coach Roring added.

Reinforcing these sentiments, Hartman said: “It was tight going into the fourth quarter and when that happens, the last 10 minutes aren’t about the players, the coaching, it’s about who has the best heart, the most heart, who can get through to the hoops and make the free throws.”

Coach Roring would know best. The Indonesian coach had led Satria Muda to a famous victory over Philippine’s Harbour Center at the 2008 SEABA Champions Club final, ending Philippine’s 10-year domination in the regional club competition.

“So we have a big chance against Patriots though we lost to them three times in the regular season but, in this kind of (finals) situation, it is the heart. Just as when we lost the home court advantage to Slingers we know it will be difficult and we lost by a big margin in the first game but, this is the playoffs, it’s different,” reiterated coach Roring.

Satria Muda have walked the talk in their semi-final playoff series against a Slingers team who had the second best home record during the regular season (6-2). While the Patriots may have fumbled twice in Singapore, no team has yet to beat them at home, but Satria Muda will be playing their hearts out in Manila to show that with that, home advantage is nothing.

This mouth-watering ABL finals series will take place at Manila’s Ynares Sports Arena at 6pm (UTC/GMT +8) tomorrow. Entrance is free.

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It was a mid-week ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) game tucked away in the Jakarta suburb of Kelapa Gading on a rainy evening, but Satria Muda BritAma’s “6th man” still showed up to fuel the hosts’ hunger for victory. The 74-45 score line in Jakarta had less to do with a sedated Singapore Slingers team than it was about a spirited Satria Muda.

Even the roar of thunder outside the arena was no match for the vibrant concoction of up-tempo music blended with the “6th man” unity chant of “In-do-ne-sia” and zealous fans singing their hearts out in the arena. Like a choir director, the home crowd dictated the home team’s rhythm of the game.

The visitors, on the other hand, were just out-of-tune and were caught travelling far too many times, disrupting the flow of their usual game. The Slingers were not so much out-played than they were out-spirited by the hosts, a replay of their last visit to Jakarta in December.

“This venue hasn’t been too kind to us this season and it has just come back to haunt us really,” Slingers head coach Frank Arsego said of their Jakarta hoodoo. “Full credit to them, they had the energy level. I thought we started the game ok but for whatever reason we just couldn’t sustain it.”

It was not what the “6th man” did to the visitors but what they did for the hosts that debilitated the visitors’ ego because any taunts hurled onto the court were either lost in translation or deeply buried in the non-stop music. It is superficial to see the “6th man” effect as brash hostility towards the visiting team when in reality it is about creating an uplifting atmosphere that fires up the home team.

“Their zone defense sort of stuffed us up a bit,” admitted coach Arsego. “We had a zone attack that worked really well for us back home and we’ll have that on Sunday but for whatever reason we just didn’t have that kind of assertiveness here, we just didn’t have the confidence. People who had the open shots, didn’t take it and I don’t know what brought the mindset – we are going to fix that.”

The game appeared to be over by the end of the third period with the Slingers at just 35 points and without a response to the hosts’ 21-point lead. Both teams then released an all-local line-up in the second half of the final period where the Singaporeans kept their cool and outscored the Indonesians 7-2.

And that became the silver-lining in the stormy night. Coach Arsego said: “I thought a couple of local boys really dug in, like [Hong} Wei Jian played really hard and Desmond [Oh] came on quite strong at the end for us, which is really good and showed we don’t just allow teams to dominate us right to the end.”

“The best thing for us is that we have been rewarded for five months of great work and by finishing second we have the home-court advantage and if we can maximise it on Sunday like they did here, we would have fulfilled one of our goals,” concluded the Australian coach.

Satria Muda’s head coach Fictor Roring was pleased that his team lived up to their semangat (Bahasa Indonesian for ‘spirit’) reputation.

“As you can see, there is a big difference in the spirit and the enthusiasm in my players. My players wanted to win. We want to go to the finals, we want to play in our gym again,” he said.

“We were ok in the first half [last Sunday] but in the second half, we lost our aggressiveness because the Slingers pressed us offensively and defensively and they were more enthusiastic and aggressive, [while] my local players’ aggressiveness was just not there,” added coach Roring on last Sunday’s loss.

Unlike the first playoff game in Singapore, where Satria Muda’s American duo of Alex Hartman and Nakiea Miller shouldered the scoring load, local boy Welyanson Situmorang stepped up in the second game, scoring 12 points and registering a 100% shooting record (FG and FT) in his 11:23 minutes on court. Situmorang scored eight points in the final period when the two imports were rested.

Coach Roring said: “We studied Sunday’s game closely to see who could control this game from the beginning. Our defense stopped Jeffers – he scored only five points! Jeffers and LeBlanc are Slingers’ key players. We thought about how to stop them because if we stop the two of them, we’ve won half the battle.”

Satria Muda had to make a prompt tactical change after losing key defender Christian Sitepu to an anterior-cruciate ligament (ACL) injury picked up in Singapore which has laid him off for the rest of the season.

Sitepu was forced to retire after just 8:03 minutes of play in Singapore and coach Roring believed that the sudden loss of Sitepu, who was tasked to guard Marcus Ng, affected his plans and rotation.

Slingers’ ASEAN import Marcus Ng did a phenomenal job in defending Alex Hartman in Singapore and was again a source of frustration for the American in his own backyard. Hartman shot 29% in Singapore on Sunday and managed 38% in Jakarta, but these statistics do not do justice to the level of positive energy and exuberance Hartman brought to his team, especially in the second game.

“Satria Muda were more comfortable playing at home and they played better,” shared Marcus Ng. “We weren’t quite on the ball from the start of the game. From there we dug ourselves a hole and couldn’t get out of it, something just wasn’t right, like we are tired and our legs are gone. It was a tough game, Kyle has a tough job inside, he had to get to the board for us and do his job on Miller. Usually there are a couple of us who can help him out but tonight we couldn’t find a way.”

The game’s top scorer, Nakiea Miller, had silenced both his critics and Slingers’ Kyle Jeffers.

On shutting Jeffers down, Miller let out a cheeky grin and said: “We did a good job in not letting Jeffers get to the basket and I did a good job one-on-one with him. Slingers like to put LeBlanc in the middle and not really play defense on anybody. We are going to work on that, get our shooters on the board and once we make a couple of shots early then I can go one-on-one with Jeffers.”

“It’s my job the next few days to get my guys ready, especially in their defense and their confidence,” continued Miller. “Its game three from tomorrow on and this Sunday we are going to do what we did here. We got going from the jump and we were tough on our defense, we wanted [the win] more than we did last Sunday. So we need to want it more than they (the Slingers) do on Sunday.”

For such an insatiable appetite, coach Roring believes the key is in bringing the Satria Muda spirit to Singapore, he concluded.

“We have won on the road in Malaysia and Thailand so I don’t think we have a problem in our away games. But my players will have to bring this spirit, aggression and enthusiasm to Singapore on Sunday because the Slingers will be really confident playing at home.”

Join the Red Crew of Erwin Wong, Koh Yizhe, Jan Lin and Yvonne Yap for the live play-by-play commentary of the match at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore.

The Thailand Tigers and Brunei Barracudas may not have made it to the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) playoffs but as the only two teams that have had experienced firsthand the prowess of Philippine Patriots latest American addition Gabriel Freeman, they know best what he is made of.

The Patriots had brought in Freeman to replace Brandon Powell to pull the team out of a sudden slump. The new American import got down to business promptly to emerge as the Patriots’ top scorer and hitting a double-double in both games to seal for his team two crucial victories.

In his maiden game against the Thailand Tigers a fortnight ago, whom the Patriots beat 91-87, Freeman scored 21 points and 14 rebounds in the 30:47 minutes on court. Freeman then had 17 points and 18 rebounds to his name a week later against the Brunei Barracudas.

The 25-year-old Freeman had played for the San Miguel Beermen in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and led his team to the 2009 PBA Fiesta Conference Finals where they defeated Barangay Ginebra Kings to take the title. Freeman was named the Best Import of the Conference.

“It’s hard to catch up with Freeman,” said Tigers Filipino coach Soonthornpong Mawinthorn. “His individual ability is really great. He can shoot from three, he can drive in and he can defend too. He’s a complete player. The consistency of Freeman is really something, and he can dominate the board. Watch out for Freeman!”

Mawinthorn picked the Philippine Patriots and the Singapore Slingers to meet in the ABL finals but remained undecided which team would lift the inaugural title. He said: “The Slingers will win in terms of team work but the Patriots have better imports and players.”

While the Patriots will host the fourth-placed KL Dragons in the first playoff today, the Slingers will play Indonesia’s Satria Muda. Both hosts hold a 2-1 winning record over the visiting teams in the regular season. Of the four teams, the KL Dragons are the only ones coming off three consecutive wins.

Slingers coach Frank Arsego is cautious in his assessment of Satria Muda. He shared: “They are a very good team. We’ve had pretty good performances against them. We played a super game at home against them which was probably our best performance in the season. So that can give us some confidence.”

The Slingers thrashed Satria Muda 96-62 on November 1st, 2009, in Singapore but they needed lady luck to smile on them in Jakarta two weeks later to steal the game from the hosts 61-59 in the dying seconds of the game. The hosts had led the Slingers for 39:36 minutes.

“We’ve come from behind to beat them in an away game and the third game we didn’t play well and they played well so I think it’s pretty even,” Arsego said.

The Slingers were eventually outplayed 67-58 in their third and final game against the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) champions on December 12, 2009, in Jakarta.

“But if people look at the four teams remaining historically,” Arsego added, “you would rank the Slingers as the fourth seed even though we are in second place. In most match ups, people will consider us as the underdogs but we believe that we deserve to be where we are.”

“We’ve worked hard, extremely hard this year. I think we can be quietly confident but it is still a three-game series. We can’t think too far ahead of ourselves. We want to be in the best position as we can be for our first game,” Arsego concluded with much optimism in his voice.

The first playoff between second-placed Singapore Slingers and third-placed Satria Muda will be played today at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, while league leaders Philippine Patriots will host KL Dragons at the Ynares Sports Arena. Both games will tipoff at 4pm (UTC/GMT +8).

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

In an unprecedented move, Australian forward/center Simon Conn has been brought in to replace Mike Pilgrim in the Brunei Barracudas line-up ahead of their do-or-die ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) match against league leaders Philippine Patriots today.

This is Barracudas’ second sacking since the ABL inauguarated. Former American import, Lonnie Jones, was also sent home shortly after the league tipped-off. Reggie Larry was then brought in to replace him and has played alongside Pilgrim since.

Sacked due to disciplinary issues, Pilgrim has played in all the 14 games of the Barracudas and contributed a steady 16.5 points and 8.1 rebounds. Pilgrim had an ABL career-high of 22 points in two separate games and 15 rebounds in two other games.

But in Pilgrim’s final game against the Singapore Slingers, the American import could only managed 4 baskets in 9 attempts and made 4 out of 7 free throws in 28 minutes of action. While disciplinary concerns are believed to have triggered the sacking, his underperformance definitely pushed the button.

Simon Conn is a 6’9″, 250 lbs. forward/center who last played for Hanzevast Capitals (now known as the GasTerra Flames ) in the 2008-2009 Dutch Basketball League. He averaged 10.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19 games before injuries struck in January of 2009.

Prior to that, Conn played for 4 years in the US NCAA D1 team of Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs where as a senior, he averaged 15.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. He is listed in the starting line-up of the Sandringham Sabres in the South East Australian Basketball League before being called by the Barracudas.

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

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score