Singapore Slingers face first ABL road trip test in Brunei

By Les Tan/Red Sports

Bandar Sri Begawan, Brunei, Saturday, October 24, 2009 – The undefeated Singapore Slingers take on the Brunei Barracudas tonight in their third game of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).

The Slingers beat the Barracudas 87-69 to open their ABL campaign but Slinger Michael LeBlanc believes the second game against them will still be a challenge.

“It’s always tough to play a team again for the second time. You kinda learn about each other. You kinda learn the good things, but also the bad things. So the coaches are going to tweak the game plan a little. It’s going to be a lot more challenging than the first one,” said LeBlanc who is currently the fifth-highest points scorer in the ABL currently with 35 points and a 16.5 points-per-game average.

“They’ll obviously be in a little bit better condition as well as they’ll probably have a chance to work on some of their weaknesses. So I think it’ll be a good challenge for us. Any time you get to play a team for the second time, you learn that the stuff you got away with in the first game might not work.

“So let’s compromise and maybe run another variation to our offense, maybe look for another option. So it gives us a chance to improve. We got a lot of room to improve. So that’s the scary thing. We’re winning games by not playing 40 minutes of great basketball yet. Imagine if we put together 40 minutes, this team can be a lot better than it is right now,” said LeBlanc.

The Slingers’ second game last weekend was a 74-69 victory over the favourites Philippine Patriots. A strong defensive display by the Slingers shut down the Patriots offense, but a near meltdown at the end with bad turnovers almost lost the Slingers the game.

Slinger co-captain Kyle Jeffers said coach Frank Arsego brought it up in practise this week.

“Coach talked about doing a better job with the ball. We talked about that on Tuesday. He told us he watched the game all over again and he wasn’t too happy. He said we did some good things, we did a lot of bad things but what won us the game was that we did more good things than the other team. It’s one of the things we have to do to put together 40 minutes of basketball throughout the season,” said Jeffers who currently leads the ABL with 32 rebounds and a 16 rebounds-per-game average.

A talking point from the game against the Patriots was the clash between LeBlanc and Warren Ibanez which left the latter with a bloodied nose and a groggy head.

“The Philippine style of basketball is one where they want to intimidate you, at the same time play tough. Basically their entire style is about playing uptempo yet at the same time being physical,” said LeBlanc.

“I kinda knew even before the pass was made to me there was going to be contact on the play. So what I tried to do was the best I could to finish the play as well as to protect myself from possibly getting injured. I saw them when I was running down the court. Because I think they kinda knew the ball was going to end up in my hands. I saw three guys converging on me. It wasn’t like they were coming to block my shot,” LeBlanc added.

Fellow Slinger Wong Wei Long also had a clash with another Patriot, Christian Coronel, leading to Wei Long throwing an elbow after the whistle.

“I was too emotional. He hit me on the back and kept grabbing me. This is off the ball. Even when I am running the baseline play, he will just hit me on the back. Not just him. The other players too,” said Wei Long.

“I was a bit emotional and just threw out my elbow. It was quite light. I just glanced him but I did apologise to him. I went to him to say sorry to him. I have to control my emotions.”

Wei Long’s contribution as a shooter to the team was epitomised by his four-point play at the end of the first half which helped his team to draw level. Another three-pointer immediately after that gave the Slingers a three-point lead at half-time.

The concern for the Slingers is their inability to play against the zone defense, something which the coaches have been addressing in training.

“The first game they [Barracudas] played zone defense and so the last two days we worked on our zone defense and we worked on how to break through their 3-2 zone defense,” said assistant coach Neo Beng Siang. “Why they played zone defense last game was because they got into foul trouble in the first quarter. They used only 6 to 7 players in rotation and so they had to go to zone defense.”

“[To overcome a zone defense], we need more touches inside and when they double team we push the ball out to our shooters. We’ll go for fast breaks. That’s the key for us. We’ll run them down,” added Beng Siang.

The Slingers travelled to Brunei with a squad of 10 players only with Steven Khoo unavailable because of National Service (compulsory military service).

“Without Steven [Khoo] here, maybe our rotation is not that impressive because we will miss his height and he gives Kyle and Path needed minutes breaks when needed. It can’t be helped because of his National Service. We will look at Lao Lao (Lim Wai Sian) because he didn’t play the last game. Hopefully he can step in and so something that helps the team.”

“I didn’t hear about that!” said Lim Wai Sian when told that he might play. “Probably the number four position. If I get the chance to play, I’ll do my best.”

The Slingers held a light training session this morning at the Brunei Indoor Stadium to familiarise themselves with the venue. Interestingly, Desmond Oh suited up in the same colour red as the regular starters Al Vergara, Marcus Ng, LeBlanc and Jeffers.

Is Desmond starting tonight?

There might be something to that!” was all coach Frank Arsego wanted to say with a smile.

This road trip is the first test of the team’s character, said Arsego.

“I think all teams that have been successful playing in a league have been the ones who have learnt how to win on the road. If we make the playoffs, we will have to win on the road,” added Arsego. “When you’re on the road, you have to show your true character as a team. This is our first road trip and so you may see some character. It may be good, it may be bad. You’ll see a certain side to us tonight. I’m hoping it will be positive.”