By Erwin Wong/Red Sports

The Singapore Slingers play their final ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) regular season home game on Monday, January 11, and are looking to end their campaign here at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on a positive note.

They will meet the KL Dragons, whom they lost 74-84 to in their previous home meeting on November 22, and hope to reward the fans by performing better this time.

"We want to show the fans a win, plain and simple," said Slingers co-captain Kyle Jeffers, who had 12 points and 16 rebounds in that first meeting between the two teams. "We want to come out here, pay them back for their embarrassing us the last time, get on them defensively, and show them the team we really are and the last team that they played here at home against us are not the Slingers they are going to see from here on out."

The Dragons made all the big shots and constantly beat the Slingers off the dribble in that match, and were led by Rudy Lingganay and Chris Kuete, who fueled a huge 21-2 third quarter run which left the Slingers with too much to claw back eventually.

Revenge was not exactly on Slingers' coach Frank Arsego's mind, but a playoff spot was. "I don't like the word redemption, because they really took it to us here last time. We were banged up, sore, and we were tired. It was very difficult."

"But we need a game against them in the series. And if we can get that game, I don't think we'll get bumped out. And our goal is to be able to make the playoffs. So we are one magnificent performance away from locking down a spot, because the other peripheral teams won't catch us. Because if they do, we have head-to-head (advantage) against the majority of the teams."

Arsego acknowledged that this final regular season home game would not come easy against the fifth-placed Dragons team. "The KL Dragons will be tough, because they'll be playing for their season. But they have to take the (Philippine) Patriots on before they come to us. So hopefully that'll soften them up."

The Dragons shook up the form guide with a commanding 77-59 win over the league-leading Patriots on January 9, and will definitely look for more of the same against the Slingers.

The Slingers have a home win-loss record of 5-2, while the Dragons are 2-4 away from KL. The match will tip-off at 2000hrs.