By Les Tan/Red Sports in Jakarta

Jakarta, Saturday, December 12, 2009 – The Singapore Slingers fell 58-67 to Satria Muda BritAma to continue their poor run of form in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).

This was the Slingers’ third defeat in a row and they now have a 5-4 win-loss record. After a 4-0 start to the season, the Slingers are now 1-4 in their last five games.

The Slingers trailed only by four points (31-35) at half-time but started to splutter in the third. Turnovers and missed baskets saw the Slingers score only two points for a long stretch in the third quarter.

Marcus Ng then lifted the Slingers with some drives in the paint but Satria Muda put an end to any Slinger resurgence to end the third quarter nine points ahead.

The Slingers were never in the game in the fourth and there was no repeat this time of their come-from-behind 61-59 victory over the Jakarta-based club last month. That was also the last time the Slingers won a game.

The Slingers trailed by as many as 16 points and were playing catch up for most of the game.

The assessment of the team’s performance by the Slingers head coach Frank Arsego was brutal.

“Last couple of weeks, we’ve started well but we can’t maintain the level of play. We’ve got too many passengers. Simple as that. From the beginning, we’ve worked towards a very team-oriented programme, and right now, a lot of people are letting a lot of other people down.

“It’s a difficult time. Until some people build their confidence, build their ability to perform under pressure, we are probably going to struggle for a bit longer until we solve that. That’s what I believe the problem is,” said Arsego.

“We are not consistently playing well under pressure and the other teams are starting to realise that, and when a team comes at you like that, you have to fight back, and I’m questioning whether all of us collectively, can fight back. Some of us are fighting back, but we can’t allow three or four people to carry the workload of ten other players. That’s not going to get it done,” Arsego added.

The Slingers’ shooting was abysmal – only 28% (18/65) from field goal range, 18% (3/17) from three-point range and 56% (19/34) from the charity stripe.

The Slingers are now averaging 61.6 points in their last five games.

Watching his team miss even easy baskets left Arsego shaking his head on the sidelines at the BritAma Arena.

“What’s difficult about making a layup? At quarter time, if we had made those baskets, we would have been four points up and our mindsets would have been totally different. The issue is, we cannot maintain our consistency. We had to fight in the second quarter to hang in there.

“We’re finding this situation, this is what I believe is compounding our problems: We work very hard, we might bag an open shot, we miss it. We come down the next time, we defend, we do a good job, we go back the next time, we get a layup, we miss it. We come down, they score, they might score three out of it. We go down the next time, we turn it over, and they come back and score. We go down, we make a bad pass, they get the ball and come down and score,” described Arsego.

“So instead of having points on the table that will boost your position, you don’t get it, and in the next possession you turn it over, that’s the end of it, we’re down another six or eight points. We have not been able to continually put scoreboard pressure on teams,” added Arsego.

The Slingers are scheduled to play the Thailand Tigers in their next game on Thursday, December 17th, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Game time is 8pm.

Quarter by Quarter Scores
Satria Muda v Singapore Slingers
1st Q: 15-17
2nd Q: 20-14
3rd Q: 15-10
4th Q: 17-17

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score

* Denotes starters. PTS – Points scored. FG – Field goals made/attempted. 3PT – Three-point field goals made/attempted. FT – Free throws made/attempted. OR – Offensive rebounds. DR – Defensive rebounds. TR – Total rebounds. AST – Assists. STL – Steals. BS – Blocked shots. TO – Turnovers. PF – Personal fouls. MIN – Minutes played.

Satria Muda BritAma Game Box Score

* Denotes starters. PTS – Points scored. FG – Field goals made/attempted. 3PT – Three-point field goals made/attempted. FT – Free throws made/attempted. OR – Offensive rebounds. DR – Defensive rebounds. TR – Total rebounds. AST – Assists. STL – Steals. BS – Blocked shots. TO – Turnovers. PF – Personal fouls. MIN – Minutes played.

Singapore Slingers 2009/10 ABL schedule