Story by Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports. Photos by Joseph Lee/Red Sports
Ng Hanbin (Slingers #6) being fouled by Rashawn Mccarthy (Dragons #2) on a lay-up attempt. He finished the game with a team-high of 12 points. (Photo 1 © Joseph Lee/Red Sports)
OCBC Arena, Sunday, July 27, 2014 — The Singapore Slingers went down 57–65 to Malaysia Dragons in the second game of their 2014 ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) campaign.
Moala Tautuaa (#33) led the Dragons with 21 points, while Justin Knox (#25) posted a double-double with 15 points and 18 rebounds. Hassan Adams (#3) and Ng Hanbin (#6) contributed 12 points each for the Slingers, while Kyle Jeffers (#31) recorded a double-double with 11 points and 25 boards.
The Slingers shot poorly from the field, making only 26% of their shots. The Slingers bench combined for 22 points, performing better than the Dragons’ bench, who only managed four points.
In the opening quarter, Justin Knox (#25) and Moala Tautuaa (#33) of the Dragons had their way in the paint, combining for 12 of their team’s 19 points. Larry Liew (#11) was the only Slinger to find his way through the Dragons’ defence early in the quarter, putting up six points. In the closing seconds of the quarter, Ng Hanbin (#6) sank a step-back three-pointer to reduce the Slingers’ deficit to three points.
Ng Hanbin (#6) was huge in the second quarter, as he put in five timely points to help the Slingers reduce a nine-point deficit to just four to end the second quarter.
Early in the third quarter, four straight points from Hassan Adams (#3) and Kyle Jeffers (#31) tied the game at 29 apiece with under eight minutes to play. The Dragons responded with an 8–0 run to hold on to their lead. The Malaysians held a five-point lead to enter the final quarter.
Moala Tautuaa (#33) carried the Dragons’ offence with 11 points in the closing quarter. The Slingers enjoyed a better output in the closing quarter, but they were unable to close out the game, as the Dragons extended their lead to eight points to claim the 65–57 victory.
Slingers head coach, Neo Beng Siang, was visibly disappointed with the team’s performance. “We were not sharing the ball. Individually, we were holding the ball too long, rather than running our offensive plays.”
“Our field goal percentage was 26%. We will never win a game with such a low percentage. It’s going to be tough now. It’s our recovery day tomorrow, and on Tuesday, we’ll be heading off to Bangkok. This means that we have only one practice before our game against HiTech Bangkok City on Wednesday. But of course, we’ll try our best to do what we’re supposed to do,” added Neo.
Ng Hanbin (#6), led the Slingers with 12 points and also shot 44% from the field. Ng said, “It’s definitely a step forward in my playing career, because I’ve been struggling for quite a while. I guess hard work pays off. I’ve been taking a lot of shots to get ready for this competition. It definitely can be better, and I’m looking forward to the next game.”
“I think we did okay defensive-wise, but I believe we got out-rebounded on the boards, and there are just some days when the ball would not go in. We did not execute our running plays today, so we hope to run our plays in the next game,” added Ng.
The Slingers will travel to Thailand to play HiTech Bangkok City on Wednesday, July 30, and return home to play Saigon Heat on Sunday, August 3, at the OCBC Arena at 4pm.
Scoring by quarter
Singapore Slingers vs Malaysia Dragons
1st Quarter: 16–19
2nd Quarter: 9–10 (25–29)
3rd Quarter: 14–15 (39–44)
4th Quarter: 18–21 (57–65)
Scoring by teams
Singapore Slingers: Adams – 12, Ng – 12, Jeffers – 11, Liew – 8, Oh – 4, Vergara – 4, Wong – 3, Goh – 2, Wu – 1.
Malaysia Dragons: Tautuaa – 21, Knox – 15, Eversley – 11, Loh – 10, Ooi – 4, Tong – 2, Ng – 2
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