ABL: Singapore Slingers burn KL Dragons 74-61 for second win of season

By Kenneth Tan/Red Sports. Photos by Vanessa Lim and Tan Jon Han/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sunday, October 17, 2010 — The Singapore Slingers beat the visiting KL Dragons 74-61 in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) this afternoon at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The Slingers improved to a 2-1 win-loss record while the Dragons are still without a win three games into the second ABL season.

New Filipino import Leo Avenido was undoubtedly the hero as he repeated his 20-point scoring feat in the opening game against Satria Muda. Avenido had five three-pointers and eight rebounds in the game.

“Again, it’s just lucky that I make big shots! They (my teammates) assisted me with those shots so I took it,” chuckled the 31-year-old when asked about his heroics.

However this was no luck according to Slingers coach Neo Beng Siang.

“I told him that if he’s open, he has to feel confident to take the shot because he’s one of our best shooters in the team. Rather than having him dwell on the ball, trying to draw fouls with three defenders on him, he just pushes himself through,” explained Neo.

Avenido was followed on the scoring charts by captain Kyle Jeffers’ 18 points and 12 rebounds. Al Vergara scored 17 points and grabbed five rebounds and new American import Marcus Skinner chipped in with 15 points and nine rebounds.

For the locals, it was a game to forget as only Steven Khoo and Desmond Oh were able to chip in with two points each, with the former grabbing one rebound and the latter grabbing five.

Coach Neo was definitely not satisfied with that.

“Their performances are up and down and not consistent. I’m quite tough on that but I have to give them confidence as they are locals. We need to promote them to get better,” he said.

In a game where they never relinquished the lead, the Slingers were always in command as their lead often went into double digits. However the Dragons, led by new import Alexander Hartman, kept reducing the deficit to raise a few eyebrows among the local fans when they closed to within four points at 51-55 early in the fourth quarter.

In the end the Slingers managed to withstand that pressure with a late scoring spree that included five three-pointers to sink their neighbours by a 13-point margin.

Coach Neo was a relieved man after the match.

“Basically starting off, we shared the ball around, but after the first two quarters when we led by 10 to 13 points, we were a bit selfish. (In the second half) We’re supposed to come out hard, but we were a bit sloppy. On turnovers, we were not strong enough and did not value the ball thus giving them a chance to get back. But our defence stopped them and we hung on to the game at least,” he elaborated.

The Dragons have a 2-1 record over the Slingers in last season’s head-to-head encounters but the Slingers were determined to put one in the win column when Leo Avenido stole the ball from Jason Killeen and assisted Kyle Jeffers to score within 10 seconds of the start.

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