Slingers Finish Strong by Drubbing Heat

(Photo by Kuk Thew)

The Singapore Slingers ended the elimination round of the 2015-2016 ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) season with a bang as they clobbered the Saigon Heat, 100-73, at the OCBC Arena.
Heading into the match, the Slingers still had a chance to finish in first place if the Westports Malaysia Dragons lost to the Pilipinas MX3 Kings in Kuala Lumpur. However, since that match ended during the halftime break of the Singapore-Saigon match, the coaching staff of the Slingers decided it would be best to give some of their bench guys time on the floor.

It was a two-fold decision for them as they intend to keep their main guys injury-free for the upcoming playoffs and also give the lesser used guys some confidence because their services might just be needed at some point. Justin Howard led the Slingers with 17 points, 16 rebounds, and 8 assists while his fellow import Xavier Alexander also scored 17 points with 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. Their ASEAN Heritage import Kris Rosales also had a good performance with 14 points, 3 assists, and a rebound.

The crowd, however, went wild for their local heroes. Wong Wei Long, Qingde Wu, and Qing Huang Toh combined for 31 points with seven triples. Delvin Goh showed his ability to hang bang bodies inside as he notched 8 points and 8 rebounds. David Arnold had another outstanding game for the Heat as he got 26 points with 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal while Paul Williams added 20 points and 13 rebounds. However, Saigon’s firepower was severely hurt by the absence of their main import Lenny Daniel and Moses Morgan only scoring 6 points in the game after suffering a nose injury.

It was a tight game after the first quarter with the Slingers only holding a slim 23-21 lead. But they would soon find their rhythm as they slowly built a lead in the second period.

A three-point play from Desmond Oh at the 2:34 mark gave the Slingers their first double-digit lead at 44-32 and they settled for a 48-39 halftime lead.

Instead of relaxing, Singapore pressed their defense to start the second half as they employed a full-court press. They re-established their double-digit lead at the 5:23 mark of the third after a basket from Howard and they did continued to add on to it until the final buzzer sounded.

Saigon did not put up a lot of resistance as their coaching staff emptied out their bench early in the fourth quarter to prevent any untoward incidents from happening.

Singapore will open the playoffs of the 2016 ABL season against defending champions Hi-Tech Bangkok City on Saturday, February 27, at the OCBC Arena.

The Heat on the other hand will try to steal a game against the Westports Malaysia Dragons at the MABA Stadium on Sunday, February 28.