By Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Matthew Lau/Red Sports
Dior Lowhorn (Slingers #33) gets past Bangkok City’s defence and scores with the lay up. Lowhorn led the Slingers with 21 points. (Photo 1 © Matthew Lau/Red Sports)
OCBC Arena, Friday, October 31, 2014 — The Singapore Slingers crashed out of the 2014 ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) playoffs after they were defeated 73–76 by Bangkok City in Game 2 of the best-of-three semi-finals.
Having lost Game 1 of the series 76-90 in Thailand, the Slingers needed a win to tie the series and force Game 3. However, they were unable to overcome their slow start and although they rallied towards the end, they failed to get the victory.
Bangkok City’s Patrick Cabahug poured in a game-high 26 from 10-of-15 shooting as the Slingers failed to keep him quiet in the early part of the match. Justin Howard had a huge double-double with 19 points and 20 rebounds while Dior Lowhorn scored a team-high 21 points for the home side.
The Slingers had a sluggish start to the match as they failed to contain the hot shooting of Bangkok City, allowing the Thai team hit their first six attempts of the match. Within the first four minutes, the Slingers were down 6–16 with Cabahug too much to handle. The Filipino shooter poured in 12 points in the first quarter.
A pair of Ng Han Bin three-pointers limited the damage, but the Slingers still trailed 16–30 after the first 10 minutes.
After the restart, the Slingers began playing much better basketball. They took full advantage of mistakes by the visitors, punishing them with an 8–2 run and forcing the Bangkok bench to call a timeout. That did not change the direction of the match, however, as they Slingers trimmed the deficit to just three points after eight minutes.
Lowhorn scored 12 points in the second quarter as the Slingers trailed by just three points (40–43) heading into the third quarter.
Careless ball handling in the third period by the Slingers allowed the visitors to regain their advantage and restore a double-digit lead at 55–45. The Slingers’ offence seemed to desert them as they managed just nine points in the quarter. Bangkok City held a comfortable 58–49 lead heading into the final period.
The Slingers finally got their offence going early in the fourth period, swiftly cutting the deficit down to two points (59–61) thanks to back-to-back jumpers by Lowhorn with a little over seven minutes remaining. Strong rebounding against Bangkok’s big men also limited their offence. Desmond Oh’s layup tied the game at 67–67 with 2 minutes 50 seconds remaining and it looked like the Slingers would scrape through with a win.
However, they were unable to take the lead due to poor free throw shooting while at the other end, Bangkok made theirs from the charity stripe to ice the game. A last-second attempt by Lowhorn from beyond the arc hit the front rim and the Slingers were knocked out of the playoffs.
“I’m really disappointed with our first and third quarter performances,” said Slingers head coach Neo Beng Siang.
“We started off badly and once we were chasing the game, it is very tough. We did well to come back but our free throws killed us at the end.”
“Their two imports did a really good job on our imports in the post. We struggled on our passing to our bigs due to this pressure,” added Neo.
For now, it is back to the drawing board for Neo and his national team players as they take a break before focusing on the 2015 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
Scoring by Quarter
Singapore Slingers vs Bangkok City
1st Quarter: 16–30
2nd Quarter: 24–13 (40–43)
3rd Quarter: 9–15 (49–58)
4th Quarter: 24–18 (73–76)
Singapore Slingers: Lowhorn – 21, Howard – 19, Vergara – 10, Wei Long – 8, Han Bin – 8, Liew – 3, Low – 2, Oh – 2.
Bangkok City: Cabahug – 26, Charles – 18, Canada – 14, Thomas – 12, Dasom – 5, Lertmalaiporn – 1.
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