Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.
Desmond Oh (Slingers, #2) scored nine points in the match after featuring for 15 minutes and 36 seconds. “Although I am happy I got quite a lot of minutes, I believe I could work on my offense more. It is hard to chase the match when you are 10 plus points down. It is possible, but very hard.” (Photo 1 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Singapore Indoor Stadium, Monday, December 7, 2009 – The Singapore Slingers put on a late rally but left it too late as they fell 62-65 to the Thailand Tigers in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL). This was the Slingers’ second consecutive home loss and leaves them with a 5-3 win-loss record.
The Slingers started the season with four straight wins, but after falling to the Philippine Patriots last month, it has gone downhill from there. Although they managed a slim 61-59 victory over Satria Muda BritAma in their next game, the Slingers were defeated 84-74 by the KL Dragons in their next match at home. In their last four games, they are only 1-3.
The Tigers, meanwhile, improve to 3-6, with this win against the Slingers their first of the season on the road after six attempts.
The Slingers had a positive start taking advantage of early turnovers by the Tigers to jump to a quick 15-7 lead with four and a half minutes played. The starting five of co-captain Michael Wong, Al Vergara, Kyle Jeffers, Michael LeBlanc and Marcus Ng did the damage for the Slingers in the opening minutes.
However, poor ball-handling by the Slingers allowed the Tigers to keep within striking distance and the visitors ended the quarter only six points adrift at 16-22.
The second period belonged squarely to the Tigers as they limited the Slingers to just a measly seven points. Ratdech Kruatiwa reduced the Slinger lead to just two points with a three-pointer at the 6:19 mark, while a quick steal by Attaporn Lertmalaiporn allowed him to level the scores at 27 with a layup.
Attaporn then sank a three-pointer to give the Tigers the lead for good with more than four minutes left in the quarter, and the Tigers extended their lead further at half-time to nine points (38-29).
The Tigers continued their dominance and mastery of the Slingers upon resumption. Kruatiwa started the quarter brilliantly for the Tigers with a three-pointer as the Slingers struggled to make their chances count in the early goings. As a result, the Tigers led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter.
Although they managed to reduce the deficit with LeBlanc's powerful plays in the paint, the Slingers still trailed by nine points at 39-48 heading into the final quarter.
The Slingers were a different side in the final quarter. Although their opponents started with a 5-0 run, two consecutive three-pointers by Marcus Ng and Desmond Oh, along with a three-point play by Marcus, put the crowd firmly behind the Slingers and reduce the deficit to six points with 4:50 left on the clock. It was down to just four points at 61-65 when Kyle Jeffers made a layup three minutes later.
A series of missed free throws by Ikenna Chukwuemeka Nwankwo gave the Slingers and the home fans a glimpse of hope, but cheap turnovers and fouls cost them in the dying moments as Marcus failed to make a three-pointer at the buzzer.
The Slingers will have to bounce back on the road against third-placed Satria Muda BritAma on Saturday, while the Tigers will take on the KL Dragons on Sunday.
Quarter by Quarter Scores
Singapore Slingers v Thailand Tigers
1st Q: 22-16
2nd Q: 7-22
3rd Q: 10-10
4th Q: 23-17
Singapore Slingers Game Box Score
| # | Name | PTS | FG | 3PT | FT | OR | DR | TR | AST | STL | BS | TO | PF | MIN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Desmond Oh | 9 | 3/11 | 1/5 | 2/6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 15:36 |
| 5 | Wong Wei Long | 0 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 11:36 |
| 10 | Hong Wei Jian | 0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6:14 |
| 11 | *Michael Wong | 6 | 2/4 | 1/3 | 1/2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 21:36 |
| 12 | Prasad Sadasivan | DNP | ||||||||||||
| 13 | Steven Khoo | 0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6:16 |
| 14 | Lim Wai Sian | DNP | ||||||||||||
| 15 | Pathman Matialakan | 4 | 2/5 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10:06 |
| 19 | *Al Vergara | 6 | 2/7 | 0/1 | 2/2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 26:31 |
| 21 | *Marcus Ng | 6 | 2/13 | 1/6 | 1/1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 32:18 |
| 31 | *Kyle Jeffers | 8 | 4/12 | 0/0 | 0/2 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 32:35 |
| 35 | *Michael LeBlanc | 23 | 10/19 | 2/7 | 1/4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 37:12 |
| Total | 62 | 25/72 | 5/23 | 7/17 | 16 | 24 | 40 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 18 | 22 | 200 |
Thailand Tigers Game Box Score
| # | Name | PTS | FG | 3PT | FT | OR | DR | TR | AST | STL | BS | TO | PF | MIN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | *Chaz Twan Briggs | 12 | 5/12 | 1/3 | 1/7 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 40:00 |
| 8 | Chattipak Ruankam | DNP | ||||||||||||
| 11 | Glenn Santana Bolocon | 2 | 1/3 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9:21 |
| 12 | Ratdech Kruatiwa | 15 | 4/9 | 4/6 | 3/4 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 29:27 |
| 14 | *Axel John Gaspal Doruelo | 10 | 3/8 | 2/5 | 2/2 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 32:36 |
| 19 | Ricky Inguin Ricafuente | 4 | 1/2 | 0/1 | 2/2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7:24 |
| 23 | *Piyapong Piroon | 0 | 0/2 | 0/2 | 0/0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 11:43 |
| 24 | Chaiwat Kaedum | DNP | ||||||||||||
| 35 | *Ikenna Chukwuemeka Nwankwo | 9 | 4/12 | 0/1 | 1/10 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 40:00 |
| 55 | *Attaporn Lertmalaiporn | 13 | 4/6 | 1/2 | 4/4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 29:29 |
| Total | 65 | 22/57 | 8/24 | 13/29 | 15 | 23 | 38 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 22 | 20 | 200 |
Michael LeBlanc (Slingers, #35) gets his headband knocked off in a tussle. Despite his usual high-scoring performance, it wasn’t enough to seal the win for the Slingers today. He was top scorer with 23 points. (Photo 2 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Attaporn Lertmalaiporn (Tigers, #55) was the star of the Tigers with 13 points including five straight points in the second quarter to level the match and give the Tigers the lead. However, in the dying moments, he was fouled out and was given a technical foul when he threw the ball in the direction of the referee. (Photo 3 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Nwankwo Ikenna (Tigers, #35) made only one out of 10 free throws. If he made them all, he could have put the game beyond the Slingers much earlier. (Photo 4 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Wong Wei Long (Slingers, #5) failed to make an impact on this match with five costly turnovers in his own half. (Photo 5 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Michael Wong (Slingers, #11) had a quiet night with a mere six points despite playing over 21 minutes. The Slingers co-captain was handed a starting place alongside the foreigners. (Photo 6 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Al Vergara (Slingers, #19) attributed the loss to his team’s defense and rebounding. “It was bad. In the first quarter we led by 8 points, the second quarter we only scored 5 points? In the fourth quarter, we didn’t have time. They (Tigers) had a lot of offensive rebounds.” (Photo 7 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Although he got 16 rebounds on the night, Kyle Jeffers (Slingers, #31) failed to pull down some crucial boards and was constantly out-played by Nwankwo Ikenna. (Photo 8 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Kyle Jeffers goes for a slam dunk. (Photo 9 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Marcus Ng going between Kruatiwa and Nwankwo. (Photo 10 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Marcus Ng holds the ball tightly despite having a bloody tooth. “We showed what we could do in the last few minutes of the game when we chased the game, but that was what we should have done throughout the match. We had trouble running through them as they shot down all our fast breaks and we couldn’t make crucial plays.” (Photo 11 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
“Keep your eye on the ball!” Tiger coaches gives instructions to their players. (Photo 12 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
It was a night of frustration for the Slingers’ coaches. (Photo 13 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Coach Frank Arsego giving the team last minute instructions before the fourth period. (Photo 14 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
@kelvin, i totally agree that winning the home crowd is the most important, because the home crowd helps the slingers to win by cheering and provide them court energy. The team and the crowd sort of complements each other? Cheering would help the team play better and playing better helps the crowd cheer more.
@3stars, enough of your nonsense, go read my redhoops comments: i said wei jian should have scored more in the game and stepped up to, so don’t need to put words into my mouth.
@slingerrocks re the home crowd
This is pro sports, not rah rah school spirit or national pride. The fans pay to be entertained and they are not obligated to cheer. They react to the on-court performances and the atmosphere. During the 2Q and 3Q, when the home team was in a rut…its hard to get enthusiastic. Its called taking the home crowd out of the game. From where I was sitting, the Fans “fought hard” and loudly for the team, despite the small numbers. They reacted to the fighting spirit shown in 4Q.
If I were the Slinger mgt, winning over the home crowd would be more important than winning the league. Of course winning helps gather fans. But good time fans also drop out easily. Building a strong base on support by displaying positive team spirit, strong effort for every game, and good entertaining basketball is the spiritual and financial lifeline for the franchise.
@slingerrocks.. and here you go again praising pathman and criticizing how kj force his shot,so dont tell your fellow slingers fan that you dont differentiate locals from imports,look at your comment #3 and #10 you have all the bad comments on your imports and all praise on the locals, kj obviously want to put nwanko on a foul trouble so they can attack the board and he is the best rebounder so give the guy some credit.
@Slingerrocks..if you read all my comments on redhoops and other site im the one the asking them not to push sg to get another pinoy import- http://redhoops.com/2009/12/08/slingers-tigers/comment-page-1/#comments
@Kelvin…I fully agree with all of Kelvin’s statements, he totally brought it to the point. The zone defense killed us, giving away too many open shots for the Tigers and opening big holes inside. The strength of the Slingers is their fast speed (good and quick hands and legs) especially in defense. Let them play one-on-on defense, and this will generate steels and quick transitions … and the momentum offensively will be on the Slinger’s side. If Al and Kyle are 100% fit again, nobody in the league can stop them.
First of all …………..its an exciting game from both of the teams. have been cheering from the moment slingers players come in till the end of the match, this is what i want to see in Basketball game actually, 2 teams keep fighting for points.
the problem with this match and last match again KL is the same,
Slingers cant keep up with fast pace game (fast passing)
I noticed that there’s something bothering KJ, is he injured his right leg? coz seems that he dragging his right leg on 3rd and 4th Q, AL V still got his knee pain can see when he put some ice on it while he’s in the bench.Coach Arsego should know that they cant penetrate to inside because 35 and 3 are so good undering and rebounds, they should shot from outside more often. i dont know wad to say that the team energy is really low, and 1 more thing………. why Slingers do a Drilling match right infront of the enemy before the game start? anyway good game for both of the team and hope slingers can win the next game. Coz i will be there again to cheer them up^^ GO GO Slingers
@Kelvin, the import vs local thing came from the pinoy readers i.e 3stars who are desperately wanting Slingers to sign another pinoy player. Seriously, I don’t differentiate between imports and locals. All I want to see is the Slingers win. The entire team is to blame for the loss. No excuse for anyone on the team.
Though you did cheer and I did cheer, sorry to say, I won’t give credits to the fans at all. The Singapore Indoor Stadium has one of the worst home crowds because 70% of the fans don’t cheer. It was a library down there in the second and third quarter because fans only started cheering when the Slingers had a hope of coming back.
If the fans did make more noise, we could have won the game.
@Moh, agree that coach Arsego should have done a better coach job. But I actually thought that Pathman had already done quite a good job on Nwankwo, who is an ex-NBA player, on the defensive end. If Kyle Jeffers can’t score past Nwankwo, I don’t expect Pathman to be able to do so.
But still, the offensive strategy by the coach didn’t work out at all. Seriously, no way Desmond Oh should score more points than Jeffers. Why is Jeffers forcing shots past Nwankwo? Shouldn’t there be something like creating a mismatch or something for Jeffers to score? The Slingers’ motion offense ain’t gonna work if there are no shooters on the floor. I’m sure Frank Arsego knows that. Marcus Ng and Desmond Oh on the floor and he is playing the motion offense???
@slingerrocks.. its amazing how you put all the blame on the imports shooting ratio and even expect kj to have a double double and then more amazingly think you can be a better shooter.. wow what an illusion of grandeur you have.. why not mention your “winning wei’s” turnover and scoring.. and oh what happen to wei jian’s “impact”??
@moh
don’t agree with the point guard comments wrt coaching decisions. Based on what I saw, I suspect that Al V was not 100%. thats why the extra mins for WWL. yes the imports are better players than the locals..but I think its time to stop talking up the divisive comments on imports vs locals. By now, it should just be about the team. Al is a key part of the Slinger game in terms of ball handling and half court offense…that is getting increasingly clear and exposed.
Given the bench…I think we are just working with what we have.
No comments on Pathman……he has been used to bossing the local scene due to his relatively bigger size. He needs to up his individual defense if he wants to be a better player at this level. Being out muscled does not have to mean being outplayed individually and then collectively. In most games there will be pluses and minuses in the matchups. If all the matchups are in your favour…..then winning should not be in question.
We did not perform well. Full stop.
Poor and sloppy game from both teams last night. Low shooting percentages plus high turnovers in a low scoring game pretty much reflects this. ATROCIOUS free throw shooting from professionals (free throws are all about mechanics and practice).
Having missed the games in the last month due to work travel, I was surprised (not in a good way) by the energy levels of the Slingers last night. We were always half a step behind in defense, which has been our key strength to date. The Tiger’s 2 big men both played the full 40 mins….but there was no clear energy advantage for us in the matchups throughout the game.
We did not move the ball well in offense, especially when Al V. was not in the game, and he seemed to have less than his usual mins. Too many of our offensive possessions were based on taking on the Tigers in one on one moves, which allowed them to collapse and help put pressure on the shots. Although we still outscored the tigers in 1Q, as the game went on, and with some defensive adjustments from the Tigers, the stats caught up with us.
This lack of Slinger team offense, help out defense for the Tigers, plus our lost of the usual half step of space made us take many forced shots, which missed, and this in turn affected our confidence when we had more wide open looks later in the game.
Sorry Coach Arsego…..but as far as this spectator is concerned..the 2 -3 zone did not work for us. We gave up open looks from the top of the key, which the Tigers converted…and when we rushed out to pressure the shot, the ball moved well to find the open man. Our “free safety†in the middle of the zone did not give us the required rebounding advantage. Of course, when we did get those defensive rebounds, we rushed and turned over too many of those transitional possessions. IMHO, we still look much better in our usual extended pressure defense.
On the positive side, we showed a lot of guts in the 4Q fight back. This spectator has always been a big fan of fighting spirit and what I saw was heartening and will keep me buying tickets.
BTW, if the Slingers are reading this post……I hope you are well aware that the fans fought hard for you last night from the stands. The numbers may not be big…..but they screamed and shouted and wanted to will you across the finish line. The fans are starting to “show you the LUVâ€â€¦..and I hope that the organization sees and appreciates this.
Let’s have a better game when we match them up again next week.
P.S.
Finally…I do not normally single out individuals in a team game, but credit to MLB who carried the team in scoring, when he and everyone else…looked a little tired.
I am a little curious to know if there was a good reason for the lower than normal energy levels.
For me this loss is totally on Arsego’s shoulders.
I simply don’t understand what the heck he is trying to do.
In the second quarter Pathman was getting abused inside by the Tigers imports – but Arsego still sat Jeffers on the bench for an extended time – I just couldn’t understand it, there was no foul trouble, no sign of injury. Pathman was getting manhandled out there, giving up so many offensive boards and still Arsego just sat and watched it out. That 7 point quarter was horrible to see.
Another instance of this was with wong wei long. He couldn’t even get the ball past the half court – it was turnover aftr turnover and still Arsego sticks with him when Vergera is available on the bench. On the other side the Tiger imports played the whole game and they seem to be older than our imports.
When the locals play like crap, can’t he just give the imports extended minutes. Seriously, it was like a schoolboy game at one stage – the locals were so bad it wasn’t even funny.
I think they should just go and sign the 5th import, cause right now they look like a crap team. If they lose another one now, they need to shake up the team or let the coach go. It has become too casual, there is no urgency in any of the players and on top of that the coach makes boneheaded substitutions.
Slingers needs to re-invent their game… other team starts to dominate them now… or maybe other teams are improving(forward) while slingers is doing the exact opposite…:) gudluk to your team!
“Nwankwo Ikenna (Tigers, #35) made only 1 out of 10 free throws. If he made them all, he could have put the game beyond the Slingers much earlier.” LOL. Making them all? That’s totally out of the question. He won’t make them all. 5-6 out of 10 maybe.
Marcus Ng went 2/13 and Kyle Jeffers 4/12. I don’t think they played well. KJ is expected to get a double-double at the least. And Marcus needs to practise his shooting. Seriously, he’s making me wonder if I can shoot better than him. And all Slingers ought to practice free-throws. No way that LeBlanc at 65% freethrow shooting should be the best freethrow shooter in the team.
I hope this loss wakes the Slingers up…better find the groove soon
Once again, the Slingers inability to convert shots into points cost them dearly against an opponent that had little to offer in this encounter.
As usual, LeBlanc, Al Vergera and Jeffers did well in this game but it is the costly misses by Marcus Ng and then Desmond Oh that cost the team dearly. It was amazing to note that the Slingers were overly engrossed in making 3 point shots when they had difficulty in making 2 points one and the worst sort of fraustration came with Marcus Ng, Wong Wei Long and Desmond Oh.
Marcus Ng – In the starting 5, the Doctor-to-be could better off be in the clinic than on the court as he only managed to get on the scoreboard in the 4th Quarter – not forgetting his failed 3 pointer attempt right at the death. If he does not want to improve on his shots, I would rather see Hong Wei Jian start and just have Marcus on as a cameo for the team.
Wong Wei Long – Losing possesion in his own half, at least 5 turnovers conceded and wasteful in his foray up front, Wei Long was one of the reason why the Tigers were so far ahead of us in the 2nd Quarter. He must always remember that he is no Al Vergera and that teamwork prevails when individual skills are lacking. His inability to read the game also caused the Slingers dear as for the 2nd home game in a row, he made passes that were totally out of reach to his team mates. Maybe he was overawed with the atmosphere in the stadium and sucuumb to the pressure?
Desmond Oh – What’s the point of getting nine when he could have got double digits at the minimum? Missing free throws as freely as Ikeena, Desmond was given many chances bring the team closer to the Tigers, but instead, allowed himself to be fouled. Knowing his ability in free throws, missed a good 4 free throws. Did I mention the countless lay-ups that he missed – at least 3 clear ones – which could have getr us another 4-6 points. He is one of the weakest link in the team and continue to show why.
Although the Slingers got some saving grace with their performance in the final quarter, there is no excuses for their meek performance in the 2nd Quarter where they convert less than 10 points in the entire 10 minutes – not even a point in a minute. Coupled with some very boring half-time performance, it seemed that fans who parted away with their Monday night to turn up for this game ended up leaving the stadium more blue than ever.
The full court press tactic was used with minimal effect and when our opponent is at least half a head taller than our boys, the last thing the Slingers could do was to allowed the Tigers to have players unmarked. The Slingers were killed off with their 3 pointers. Till 17 December when we face the same opponents, let’s hope that we would walk out of the Singapore Indoor Stadium the victors – a feeling that Slingers’ fan had not felt for a long time.