Slingers blown out of water by Satria Muda in Game 2 of ABL semi-final

By Jahred Salazar in Jakarta

Kelapa Gading, Jakarta, Wednesday, February 3, 2010 – Satria Muda BritAma (SMB) treated their loyal followers with a spectacular show, dwarfing the Singapore Slingers with a lot of dizzying defensive stops and accurate passing on their way to a 74-45 blowout.

The win evens up the best-of-three semi-final playoffs at 1-1 and both teams play the deciding third game on Sunday, February 7th, 4pm, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The first two Satria Muda possessions can almost sum up the story for the night. With Satria Muda getting the first touch, Nakiea Miller unleashed a 3-point bomb 1m away from the 3-point line to start the rampage. Then on the Slingers' ensuing possession, Miller blocked Al Vergara's lay-up to set the tone defensively.

In the first quarter, the Slingers were on a semi-zone defense with the Slingers' Marcus Ng sticking his face all over Alex Hartman of Satria Muda. In their first scuffle very early in the quarter, Hartman bumped Ng who successfully sold it to the referees for an offensive foul, but after that it was guns blazing for Hartman as he made three consecutive baskets using Ng as the scope.

In the middle of the quarter, after a stretch of almost three minutes where the Slingers failed to score, Vergara made back-to-back triples to make the score 11-10. As the Slingers threatened to make the ball game more exciting, Wendha Wijaya who came in for Amin Prihantono quickly scored an easy two points to answer.

Miller was then called for a goal-tending violation and the points were awarded to Michael LeBlanc, his only points in the first quarter.

After Satria Muda called their first time-out, they immediately went to Miller at the post against Kyle Jeffers and scored to extend the lead, and from then on, Satria Muda were never in danger again.

The first quarter was highlighted by a Hartman-to-Miller play for a 10-point SMB lead that brought the crowd to its feet.

At the start of the second quarter, SMB switched to a man-to-man defense and the Slingers' turnovers kicked into high gear. It took more than four minutes before the Slingers could muster a bucket but by then SMB has almost doubled their output with a 30-16 score.

All throughout this quarter, SMB didn't let up and continued putting pressure defense on the Slingers. It was in this quarter that they applied a full-court press that resulted in another Slinger turnover.

At the end of this first half and with still around 10 seconds left, Vergara heaved a 3-point shot from mid-court after getting confused with the shot clock and the game clock.

The excitement level was raised in the third quarter as the fans were treated with alley-hoop shots and a thundering two-handed slam dunk from Miller. Although SMB's lead never went down below 15, several great executions of plays by both teams were on display.

Defense also made this quarter a fast-paced one as several steals and blocks resulted in some fast break points. Kyle Jeffers was kept in check particularly by Miller who was unable to launch any offensive weapon.

After Jeffers scored the first four points of the Slingers way back in the opening minutes of the first quarter, he only managed to score a point on a split free throw with 3:05 remaining in this quarter (This is also Jeffers lowest game output out of 17 games in the ABL).

Going into the last quarter and in control most of the way, SMB still didn't ease up on defense. SMB were switching defense continuously, going from man-to-man, to semi-man, to zone defense, throwing off any momentum that the Slingers were trying to establish all game long. This time the lead never went down to 18 and even went up to as high as 34 points.

With still seven minutes left in the game and during a Slingers timeout, the floor announcer had started to remind the fans to watch out for Game 3 on Sunday.

After the timeout, Miller was taken out of the game and interestingly, while SMB was on zone defense, Hartman was playing center.

SMB local players then started to get confident and took over the game. Situmorang Welyanson who played brilliantly all night had a back-to-back "and 1" play both from fouls by Steven Khoo.

With the game in the bag and the clock winding down, both teams rested their imports and gave their local players some playing time, with coach Fictor Gideon Roring of SMB even emptying his bench in the last two minutes.

Why SMB won

– SMB successfully limited Kyle Jeffers output and most of the credit should go to Nakiea Miller. Although the switching defense was really good and the help defense was on-time. Let's just say that Miller owned Jeffers this time.

– Even if SMB said defense was the key to their win, their efficient team play contributed greatly if not more for the win.

– Team assist was 18-9 in favor of SMB, especially the drive and dish move by Alex Hartman was almost unstoppable.

– Nakiea Miller's 9 blocks and SMB's total of 13 compared to only 1 by the Slingers,

Why Slingers lost

– Poor shooting converting only 15 out of 62 attempts for a measly 24% field goal.

– Turnovers. Although the numbers look close (15-11), Slingers turnovers were more costly and game-changing.

In terms of effort, both teams gave it their all but the Slingers just could not convert those open shots. Maybe SMB wanted it more than the Slingers but the Slingers certainly did not just roll over and give up.

SMB appeared more relaxed playing at home and the Slingers' nerves were obvious, a contrast to the first game in Singapore.

Both teams thrive on home court but with this huge win, the final game on Sunday should be a fascinating one.

Satria Muda BritAma Game Box Score

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score

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