Slingers withstand late-game charge to beat Patriots 74-69 for second ABL win

Story by Erwin Wong, Jan Lin and Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sunday, October 18, 2009 - For all of three quarters, the Singapore Slingers' ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) match against the Philippine Patriots went the way of their season-opener against the Brunei Barracudas seven days earlier.

Once again, the Slingers held a 25-16, nine-point lead in the second quarter before their opponents rallied back to keep the half-time Slinger lead honest. The home team then pulled away to lead by double digits in the third period, but instead of allowing the Slingers to coast to victory in the fourth, the Patriots did not simply go quietly.

The Slingers eventually came out tops 74-69, but not before enduring a nervy late-game meltdown which saw them struggle to overcome the Patriots' suffocating full-court pressure defence, resulting in eight fourth-quarter turnovers, but eventually surviving when Patriots' Warren Ibanez committed a crucial miscue of his own to yield the game to the Slingers.

Kyle Jeffers led the home team with 17 points and 12 rebounds, but had to miss nearly half of the second 20 minutes when he picked up his fourth foul with 4 minutes and 56 seconds to play in the third period.

The American said: "The team came together when I was sitting out. It was really frustrating for me, but the team stuck to the game plan. The locals have to be given credit as they came in and played really hard. They stuck to their guns while playing their part in the team. Each player played their part and they complemented each other."

With Jeffers on the bench one violation away from fouling out of the ball game, Steven Khoo came on for him and played out the remainder of the quarter. The team then altered their defensive strategy and actually extended their lead from that point on.

Said Jeffers' co-captain Michael Wong: "We switched to a zone defence, and the Patriots did not shoot well during that stretch. On the offensive end, our off-the-ball movement was fast as well."

The Slinger lead was soon bumped up to 15 when Michael LeBlanc, who scored 15 points, converted one of two free throws to make it 54-39, as the Patriots self-destructed on a slew of missed shots. They were an abysmal 3 of 23 from the field in the quarter and were outscored 20-12, but did make a game of it towards the end of the match when their full-court press - which they started to employ midway through the same third quarter - took its toll on the Slingers.

With point guard Al Vergara well-policed by opposite number Froilan Baguion and constantly being denied opportunities to receive the ball from Slinger inbound plays, the team had to turn to others for the first pass. These second options were either not as adept in handling the ball, or simply threw it away.

"We were expecting the full-court press and came up with strategies to overcome it, but we did not do too well," said Michael Wong, who was scoreless from four attempts from the field. "That said, I thought that our opponents were over the edge, as they were pulling and hugging our players to deny them the ball."

Things did get a little testy in the final period, as the Patriots' 8-0 run whittled a 14-point deficit to only a 56-50 Slinger lead. With emotions running high as the highly-audible Philippine crowd egged the Patriots on, reserve point guard Wong Wei Long was involved in a jawing match with Christian Coronel after the latter fouled him, a sequence which also saw Wei Long swing an elbow after the foul was called.

Two minutes later, Wei Long blew his top when he was deemed to have fouled Brandon Powell on the latter's successful lay up, and was promptly charged with an unsportsmanlike foul.

"My intention was to get the ball and smack it away. I got a clean sweep at it, but because I was behind him, it was called a foul," said Wei Long, as he described the play.

"There was a time when I did get my emotions in the way. It was very frustrating when they were running me out of the court and the foul was called on me! So I was a bit emotional then, and I'll have to learn to stay calm.”

The Patriots, though, had dug a hole too deep for themselves to climb back out of, and when the Slingers did manage to break the full-court press, the Philippine team failed to get sufficient defensive stops, and ultimately ran out of time at the death.

The Slingers still led by 10 with 2:19 to play, but Powell, who led the Patriots with 15 points and 11 rebounds, split a pair from the line to make it a four-point game at 70-66. After Slinger LeBlanc turned it over right after he rebounded the missed free throw, the Patriots had 26 seconds to play, an offensive inbounds possession right under the Slinger basket, and a whole host of options to utilize.

They could either hit the quick three or drive to the basket for two, since the Slingers were already in the penalty zone. If they scored, they could press the Slingers into another inbounds play turnover. And if they did not, they could foul and put the Slingers on the free throw line where their percentage hovered around the 50% mark all game.

Those scenarios were promptly rendered useless when Ibanez failed to release the ball within five seconds on the inbounds play, one of nine Patriot turnovers in the quarter. Marcus Ng then sealed the game with two free throws and a dunk, and the Slingers got out of jail.

Slingers' coach Frank Arsego complimented his team's defensive intensity for the close win. “I give a lot of credit to our defense. Our goal was to stay around the 70-point mark and we’ll be in the game. We kept them to 69 and we actually kept to quite a low score in the first half.”

“We’ve got a team that is very committed in playing defense, we may not be very aggressive but when it comes to the half-court, everyone is starting to learn about their responsibilities and they know they have to do it with 5 players and not just 1 player, and we’ll continue to develop that."

Steven echoed his coach's words, saying: “This match showed that we could really take it (doing well in the ABL). We played as one, our defence did a good job, and the bench players stepped up."

Although the Slingers led after every quarter and held an advantage for more than 33 minutes, the game was much closer than the score suggested. "It was a tough challenge for us, but we withstood the charge," said LeBlanc.

"It was a very physical game, and there were a lot of dirty stuff going on. They (the referees) gave me a flagrant foul but they never did see that I was punched on the chin before that. But we found a way to win at the end."

The Slingers will travel to Brunei for their first road game of the season, and will play a much-improved Barracudas team which they beat by 18 points last week.

"We will just continue to play as one," said LeBlanc on the October 24 match. "Every game will be tough, and it's a lot tougher on the road. But we will continue to do what we do best, to take our opponents' strengths away from them, and continue to believe in ourselves."

The Patriots will next face the Thailand Tigers on Sunday, October 25, in the former's first home game of the season. The Tigers lost 78-75 to Indonesia's Satria Muda BritAma in their season-opening match today.

Attendance: 2,212

Scoring breakdown by quarters:
Singapore Slingers v Philippine Patriots
1st Q: 18-15
2nd Q: 16-15
3rd Q: 20-12
4th Q: 20-27
Final score: 74-69

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score

Philippine Patriots Game Box Score

Singapore Slingers 2009/10 ABL schedule

For full ABL fixture list, go to: ABL Fixtures