Singapore Slingers look to bounce back against Satria Muda in ABL

By Les Tan/Red Sports in Jakarta

Jakarta, Saturday, November 13, 2009 – The Singapore Slingers take on Satria Muda BritAma this afternoon at the BritAma Arena looking to bounce back after their 70-53 thrashing by the Philippine Patriots last week.

The Slingers, who have a 4-1 win-loss record, are buoyed by the return of point guard Al Vergara who has shaken off the knee injury he suffered against Satria Muda two weekends ago.

“[Al coming back] is part of the whole thing giving us something upbeat,” said head coach Frank Arsego. “He did on court training, he did his weight programme, he’s had rehab. He’s looking really good. His sessions at practise were good. The head of the fish is back!”

Vergara did not start the game last week against the Patriots but was eventually pressed into action during a disastrous first quarter. Even then, the knee injury was on the mind of the 28-year-old Filipino, and he made three uncharacteristic travelling errors in that game.

“My own performance was not good because I had a lot of errors in the game,” said Vergara. “I had a lot of errors because I was protecting my leg. [The week before the game], I had individual practise only and not team practise. But it’s not an excuse.”

Travelling with the team for the first time are Prasad Sadasivan and Steven Khoo.

Prasad fills the slot left empty by Lim Wai Sian who’s down with chicken pox and is will fill the number four position if needed.

“I was told about it only on Thursday but during the week I was given hints already. I’m pretty excited about this trip. This is my first road trip. I’m hoping to play. Training has been good this week,” said Prasad.

Steven Khoo finished his National Service commitment last Monday and is also raring to go.

“Good! Great!” said Steven when asked how he felt to be in Jakarata. “Finally I can join them on the road trip because previously, the two [away] trips, I couldn’t get leave so I was a bit bored in Singapore. The only thing I could do was just check the live scores on the internet.

“I will be getting the defensive rebounds, setting the screen, hitting those open shots,” said Steven when asked what was expected of him as a back up number four.

Having Prasad and Steven has given the Slingers a different look this week, highlighted coach Arsego.

“We’ve brought our biggest lineup, height wise, that we can put together at this point in time of the season. That helps us because it gives an opportunity to put Michael LeBlanc back in the three,” said Arsego.

Veteran Slinger Pathman Matialakan will also be hoping for more playing time after seeing limited minutes in Manila.

“Given the amount of time I was given to play, I think I did alright,” said Pathman. “I was expecting to play a bit more minutes. I tried to be helpful with my teammates on the defensive. Offensively, when I had the chance, I shot the ball. Do what I do best. Slightly disappointed that I didn’t have enough minutes.”

Marcus Ng, who had to play the unfamiliar point guard position last week in Manila in a makeshift set up, also shared his reflection of that Patriot game.

“It was interesting. We had only really gone through that sort of system to take the pressure only last week in training. I thought we did quite well to handle but we still got quite a bit of work to do,” said Marcus.

The small eight-man squad also left him catching his breath.

“I was able to penetrate quite well and get into the gaps a bit, although I found that the game didn’t really flow in my favour, and so I couldn’t do that all the time. Plus, with the personnel we had, my legs were getting a bit tired. So I didn’t have that great an energy to go through four quarters,” added Marcus.

The team though has had a good week in practise, something that coach Arsego is pleased about.

“It was very good [in practise]. Morale was very high and the work ethic was spot on. I said to them this week, they really impressed. They really were a pro team.

“Because sometimes, you get so distraught about what happened, you can’t move on to your next assignment, your next game. And I thought we left it behind really well and started to focus on things that were more important. When you play in a league, you have to leave some things behind and move on to the next project.,” said Arsego.

Bouncing back against Satria Muda with a win is important for the Slingers, Arsego pointed out and he believes his team can take on the Indonesian Basketball League champions.

“We know what’s on this game. It’s a very important game. As coach Neo said, we match up quite well with this team because their imports match up with our imports, which means our local guys match up with their local guys. that’s where our guys are getting a lot more confident,” said Arsego.

The probable starting five for the Slingers are: Kyle Jeffers, Michael LeBlanc, Desmond Oh, Marcus Ng, Al Vergara.

The game against Satria Muda tips off at 3pm, Jakarta time (4pm, Singapore time).