By Kenneth Tan/Red Sports
17-year-old Delvin Goh (Slingers #23) in action during the game. He showed great composure whenever he was on court. (Photo 1 © Joseph Lee/Red Sports)
Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sunday, January 13, 2013 — It was always going to be a transition period for the Singapore Slingers in the fourth season of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).
The retirement of duo Steven Khoo and Pathman Matialakan was no doubt a blow, not only in terms of their experience, but also their physical presence.
However, judging by the first game of their 2013 season, coach Neo Beng Siang can at least be assured that the remaining locals are capable of filling that void.
Five of the eight registered Singaporeans featured in the 56-50 win over the Thailand Slammers with every single player playing a crucial part in the victory.
Despite failing to score any points, Ng Han Bin and Delvin Goh did their part defensively, with the former collecting three defensive rebounds while the latter went one better with four (three defensive) in total.
Delvin, in particular, was featured in eight and a half minutes and if he plays at this rate, he should have no problem surpassing his playing time during his debut 2012 season. With Pathman retired, more responsibility will be placed on the broad shoulders of this 17-year-old.
In his first game, Delvin shook off his nervousness quickly and gained confidence with each minute on court. The more experience imports had trouble going past him under the basket.
More importantly, him stepping up gave coach Neo an additional option off the bench to give much-needed breathers to Kyle Jeffers and Rashad Jones-Jennings.
“It is very encouraging to see him play like that,” said American Jones-Jennings.
“Age goes out the window when you are on the court and he played extremely aggressively. I’m definitely pleased with his performance during this game, but there’s still a long season ahead.”
Head coach Neo also had good things to say about the fresh O-level graduate.
“Delvin did a good job today,” said the 46-year-old.
“There was no nervousness in his game and he gives me the option to rotate minutes among the bigs. No player should be playing 38 or 40 minutes and that is why it is good when he steps up.”
For Delvin, it was a pleasant surprise to get an unusually prolonged appearance.
“It’s a really good experience to play today,” said Delvin.
“Normally, I don’t play much so I started off nervous, but as the match progressed I became more calm and steady as compared to last season. The team did okay today, but defensively we still need to improve.”
And the 1.97 metre teenager is optimistic of even longer appearances in the coming games.
“We’re short of ‘bigs’ this season without Steven and Pathman. There’s only Rashad (Jones-Jennings) and Kyle (Jeffers), so I definitely have to step up to a bigger role this year. In our country, we don’t have many tall players to get blocks thus I have to do what I do best — contributing in defense and getting the rebounds,” he concluded.
Fellow Singaporean Mitchell Folkoff was also thrown into the deep end on his debut as he was handed a place in the starting lineup ahead of veterans guards Desmond Oh and Wong Wei Long.
After a slow start in the first two quarters, the rookie gradually warmed up to the affair, landing a three-pointer at the end of the third to make sure the Slingers had a decent lead heading into the final period. He then nailed two more baskets to accumulate a handy seven points in total.
The accolade of the best Singapore performer of the night went to point guard Wong Wei Long. The 24-year-old landed 10 points in total, including two three-pointers, while recording three rebounds in the process.
Seven of those points were scored in the final period.
It was a satisfying opening day victory for the Slingers although the players agreed they needed to step up even more for the upcoming games.
“For me personally, I started a bit slow,” said Mitchell.
“After a while, I started to pick up and I’m satisfied with how I played. It would have been good to reach double digits but overall it’s a pretty good debut and the most important thing is we won today.”
The former Home United man felt that his side needed to improve on their perennial weakness — sluggish starts after the half-time break that lead to a nervy end to the game.
“The third quarter – we got to work on that. We always start a bit flat in that period,the 12-point lead dropped to five, the next thing we know, it became three,” Mitchell lamented.
However, he paid tribute to the budding chemistry in the new-look side so far.
“We have pretty good chemistry,” said the 23-year-old Mitchell. “The locals and the imports get along well and are pretty open with each other. We tell each other what we need and do not get personal, I don’t think it’s an issue (despite being a new team).”
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