Singapore 13th November 2015
OCBC ARENA Singapore
With 5.4 seconds remaining, Justin Howard fouled out of the game forcing Singapore Slingers Head Coach Ben Siang Neo to sub out his import.
As Howard headed to the bench, the hometown gave their hero warm applause.
Today Justin Howard was Singapore’s hero.
Howard lit up the scoreboard with 45 points, missing only five shots for 78 field goal shooting. He also grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked three shots as he led his team to a 88-85 victory over rival Westports Malaysia Dragons.
Towards the end, the Singapore crowd gushed every time their beloved import scored.
“He ran the floor hard so we asked him to keep on running,” Coach Neo said. “The first thing [for our team] is to look inside for him because Justin was doing a great job inside tonight.”
With the win, the Slingers nab their third win of the season while the Dragons suffer their first loss of the season.
The Dragons were led by Calvin Godfrey with 31 points, followed by Matthew Wright who had 22. The Dragons actually had more field goal attempts (82) as compared to the Slingers (62) and even outrebounded them, 40-33. What led to Malaysia’s demise was their poor shooting from the floor. For the game, the Dragons were only able to shoot 40 percent from the field while surrendering 55 percent from Singapore, including the 18-for-23 performance of Howard.
“One thing about Justin is [that] he plays really, really hard so it makes up for any mistakes that guys on our team made tonight,” said Slingers import Xavier Alexander. Alexander also had himself a productive game with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists.
The two teams face each other again on Sunday as part of ABL’s first ever Straits Cup. Dubbed as “The Battle of the Causeway,” this weekend features the two proud countries in a heated head-to-head battle on each others home floor, with the winner raising the Straits Cup.
The return game is Sunday in KL at 2:30pm at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumper, Malaysia.
Singapore Slingers Leaders:
Justin Howard: 45 points, 12 rebs, 3 blocks, 2 steals
Xavier Alexander: 20 points, 11 rebs, 5 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals
Kris Rosales: 12 points, 4 rebs, 6 assists, 2 steals
Wong Wei Long: 3 points, 7 assists, 3 steals
Delvin Goh: 3 points, 4 rebs, 1 steal
