Xavier Alexander took the Singapore Slingers’ last loss personally. Against the Saigon Heat in their last game, Alexander only finished with nine points in the game while committing eight turnovers. He turned things around to lead Singapore to a dominant 85-64 victory against San Miguel Alab Pilipinas, Sunday afternoon at the OCBC Arena to move out of the cellar and claim the eighth spot in the ABL standings with their 2-4 win-loss tally.
Alexander narrowly missed what would have been an epic quadruple-double as finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists, and eight steals. He shot an efficient 9 of 16 from the field. Alexander got ample help from Marcus Elliott who had 19 points, five rebounds, and three assists and Anthony McClain who posted 18 points, 13 rebounds, and seven blocks.
The eight steals of Alexander and seven blocks of McClain set the tone defensively for Singapore. After suffering three straight losses where they lost steam and allowed their opponents to overtake them in the fourth quarter, they played smothering defense against Alab to force them to their lowest output of the season so far. The Philippine team was limited to only 34% shooting from the field. They also turned the ball over 15 times in the game while the Slingers took care of the ball really well with only six turnovers.
What made things worse for Alab is that the Slingers converted at a very high-clip from their mistakes as Singapore outscored Alab 24-5 in points off turnovers.
The tone was set early in the game as the Slingers aggressively attacked the shaded area. This turned out to be exactly what they needed as Alab’s big man San Deguara found himself in foul trouble early, leading to his limited minutes on the floor. Deguara only played 18 minutes but he was the only double-digit scorer for Alab with 14 points.
Singapore will need to carry this momentum with them to their next road game as they will travel to Macau to battle the explosive Black Bears on Thursday, January 16, at 7:30 pm.
