Even though the Singapore Slingers lost their debut game of the ABL’s 10th Season, they are still expecting a hot reception coming from the team’s loyal fans at the OCBC Arena. Playing for the first time at home, the Slingers are out to pick up their first win of the season at the expense of the Macau Wolf Warriors.
Singapore suffered a tough loss on the road against San Miguel Alab Pilipinas as their defense held for three quarters before but they were not able to hang on any longer as the former ABL champions exploded for 40 points in the final period.
The Wolf Warriors would be a very different team to contend with as compared to Alab as they do not have the same firepower as the Philippine team. However, gone are the days when a match against the Wolf Warriors was already considered a victory by their opponents as they have retooled over the last few months with started at the top with head coach Todd Purves. He selected a player who helped him win an ABL championship in Steven Thomas, who was just selected as one of the 10 Greatest Players in ABL history.
Aside from that, the Wolf Warriors also picked up another former champion in Douglas Herring who was a vital part of the campaign of the BTN CLS Knights Indonesia last season.
The Wolf Warriors’ third import in Julian Boyd has had solid numbers in the season so far as he has normed 25.8 points and 12.0 rebounds per contest. Macau started to turn things around when they hired the services of Scott Ewing as he has provided them with an extra ball-handler and a skilled shooter.
Singapore will have to be worried about these four starters and high-scoring big man Cai Chen who is now playing off the bench for the Wolf Warriors.
In their second game of the season, the Slingers need to show that they learned their lessons from their first loss and that nothing less than 40 minutes of effort on defense would be enough to score a win. Singapore will bank on their starting unit who will surely play the heavy minutes in the rotation of coach Neo Beng Siang and they’ll need to make sure to hasten the building of chemistry with Marcus Elliott and Anthony McClain with the rest of their teammates.
Game Recap: Alexander’s triple-double powers Slingers past Wolf Warriors
It was not easy but a win is a win. This is what the Singapore Slingers must have felt after they scored a 76-72 win against the Macau Wolf Warriors, Sunday night at the OCBC Arena.
Neither team really got going with their offense but Singapore banked on their vaunted defense to keep Macau’s shooting to just 30% from the field.
The Wolf Warriors led by five points, 63-58, with 5:45 remaining in the fourth quarter after a Steven Thomas basket but the Slingers tightened up their defense from that point on.
Xavier Alexander started a run for Singapore with Marcus Elliott tying the count at 64-all with a pull-up jumper. The game was still tight until the final minute with Douglas Herring converting three free throws to trim their deficit down to a single point, 69-68, but Elliott responded with a big-time triple followed by a layup from Leon Kwek that pushed. Their lead to six points, 74-68, with only 19 seconds remaining.
Cai Chen and Douglas Herring hit baskets to try and claw their way back into the game but the Slingers got splits from Elliott and Alexander from the stripe to preserve their win.
Alexander wowed the OCBC Arena crowd all game long with his signature triple-double composed of 23 points 14 rebounds, and 10 assists. Anthony McClain backed him up with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Elliott chipped in 15 points and eight rebounds while Delvin Goh added 10 markers and nine rebounds in the game.
While Singapore shot much better than the Wolf Warriors at 42%, what kept the game close was the dominance of the visitors in the offensive rebounding department as they collected 23 compared to the Slingers’ 13. This led to an 88-66 advantage for Macau in shot attempts, which was almost enough to pick up the victory.
Herring scored 21 for the Wolf Warriors with Cai finishing with 13 points in 18 foul-plagued minutes.
Thomas, the best rebounder in ABL history, added to his totals with 20 rebounds in the game along with 12 points.
Singapore did a great job in slowing down Julian Boyd who only had nine points on 4 of 18 shooting from the field, which was a far cry from his 25.8 point average. The Slingers’ defense also limited Scott Ewing to only four points on 2 of 11 shooting when he averaged 15.0 points in his first two games with the franchise.
A big challenge is coming up next for Singapore as they will run the gauntlet in Taiwan by taking on the Taipei Fubon Braves and the Formosa Dreamers on January 4 and 5 in their respective home courts.
