Alab Pilipinas will have its first road game of the season when they visit the Singapore Slingers this Sunday, December 18, 4:00PM at the OCBC Arena.
The first time that the Slingers and Alab met was during their season opener in Laguna, Philippines last month. Singapore was able to carve out a gutsy 71-66 road victory against the home favorites. Since their opening game, the two teams have grown immensely.
Alab Pilipinas has notched two straight victories after their defeat against the Slingers. Ray Parks had a quiet ABL debut with 19 points but has amped up his scoring since then. He erupted for 30 points against Kaohsiung Truth and then followed up that performance with a 41-point outburst against the same team.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Slingers plan to stop the red hot Parks. In their previous encounter, Xavier Alexander was one of the primary defenders shadowing the Filipino star. Can Parks have another scoring explosion with Alexander guarding him?
Helping Alab in their last two games is the all heart, all hustle approach of Heritage Import Lawrence Domingo. The 6’5” Filipino-American has been a solid contributor for the Philippine team with his never-ending motor. He provides the team with a renewed energy every time he steps on the floor.
Alab will be put to the test when they go up against Singapore’s Twin Towers of Justin Howard and Xavier Alexander. Similar to last season, the two have been pillars to Singapore’s production on offense and remain anchors defensively. Howard is averaging 27.75 ppg, 19.75 rpg, 3.25apg, and 2.25 bpg while Alexander is likewise churning out double-double with 16.25 ppg, 12.25 rpg, and adding 2.50 spg to boot. The Philippines will have their hands full when they go up against these two giants.
Aside from Alexander and Howard, Singapore needs a strong outing from Leon Kwek. The sweet shooting forward is putting up 14.50 ppg, on an efficient 47.3 percent shooting clip. If Alab’s defense focuses on the two Singapore bigs, it’ll be up to Kwek to provide scoring from the perimeter. He only had four points in their loss the previous game, so Singapore has to hope that he will have a better shooting performance on Sunday.
Singapore is looking to bounce back from their first loss while Alab is trying to avenge their defeat at home. Expect an all-out war between these two clubs on Sunday.
