Pasig City, Saturday, October 9, 2010 — The Philippine Patriots beat the visiting Singapore Slingers 62-59 to secure their second win of the ASEAN Basketball League regular season.

The weakened Patriots, playing without Alex Crisano and American import Anthony Johnson because of injuries, pulled through, with Junjun Cabatu scoring the last five points to secure the win.

Cabatu hit a three-pointer with 64 seconds left that gave them a 60-56 lead and even though Slingers’ Al Vergara replied with a trey of his own to reduce the deficit to just one, Cabatu had another answer with a drive to stretch the Patriots lead to 62-59 with 31 seconds on the clock. Slingers rookie Ng Han Bin had a chance to draw level but he could not execute a three-point play.

“Our defense held on especially in the last four possessions. We played much better defensively than the last time out and our locals stepped up,” said Patriots head coach on the official ABL website.

Filipinos Benedict Fernandez and Egay Billiones led the Patriots with 12 and 11 points respectively while their import Donald Little had did not have his best game with 11 turnovers while amassing seven points and nine rebounds.

The Slingers got out to a good start, leading by as much as 10 in the first quarter. Their biggest lead in the second half was seven points and had a slim one-point, 53-52 lead late in the game before Cabatu’s heriocs.

Slinger Leo Avenido led all scoring with 15 points while his teammates Marcus Skinner and Kyle Jeffers had 12 and 10 points.

The Patriots go to a 2-0 win-loss record after their opening weekend win over the Brunei Barracudas while the Slingers are now 1-1, their sole win so far coming over Satria Muda at home last week.

The Patriots will play their first away game of the season against the Barracudas on Saturday, October 16th while the Slingers will entertain the KL Dragons at home on Sunday, October 17th.