Slammers’ Attaporn drives for two while Pathman (left) and Kyle Jeffers defend. A 3-point play by Attaporn in the third quarter triggered a 12-2 Slammers run to give the home team a 10-point lead going into the fourth. (Photo 1 courtesy of ABL)
Bangkok, Sunday, February 6, 2011 — The Singapore Slingers failed in their bid to reach their first-ever ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) finals when they fell 62-73 to the top-seeded Thailand Slammers this afternoon.
In front of a ferocious home crowd, the Slammers led for most of the match with the Slingers taking the lead for the first time midway through the 3rd quarter. This lead was however short lived as the Thai team quickly regained the lead and momentum.
Thailand were able to keep the Slingers at arms length thanks to some steady teamwork and a lopsided free throw count. The Slingers made one last push when they closed to within 7 points late in the 4th quarter only for the Slammers to settle and put the game away for good.
For the Slingers, Leo Avenido led all scorers with 21 points while Marcus Skinner added 18 points and 9 rebounds. Kyle Jeffers, playing with an injured shoulder, battled hard-restricting Slammers big man Jason Dixon to 17 points and 12 rebounds while collecting 8 points and 9 rebounds himself.
Thailand dominated the bench scoring 19-0 as the Slingers bench struggled to make any real impact.
The Slammers dominated most of the match statistics with a 26-25 edge in rebounding, only 12 turnovers to the Slingers 19. But the big disparity was at the charity strip where the Slingers were 9/16 and the Slammers 24/30.
For the Slammers, they now move on and will host game 1 of the championship series against the defending ABL champion Philippine Patriots in Bangkok on February 13.
The Slingers also fell at this stage last year when they were knocked out by Satria Muda.
since slingers is weak team, i prefer them against patriots and i believe they have more local supporters.
see ya next year slingers..