SURABAYA – The Singapore Slingers have yet to find their usual dominant form as they falter down the stretch in a loss to the BTN CLS Knights Indonesia, 74-89.
Fresh from three commanding victories over Mono Vampire, the Macau Black Bears, and the Formosa Dreamers, the Knights’ momentum needless to say is relatively above par as the Indonesia-based cagers started the season with a sloppy 1-4 record.
Meanwhile, the Slingers went on a five-game win streak after they opening loss to the Formosa Dreamers. After Hong Kong Eastern rained on their parade, Singapore couldn’t seem to find their rhythm as they tallied a 2-4 win-loss card in the succeeding games, including the most recent one against the Knights.
The home squad immediately showed its offensive and defensive prowess since the buzzer sounded as they only held the Slingers to just 15 points after the first quarter. The Knights fired on all cylinders as they drilled three-pointers and mid-range jumpers all over the place.
Singapore’s John Fields, Jerran Young, and Xavier Alexander who combined for 59 points led the charge for the visiting team. But they still couldn’t find their stroke from beyond the arc as they only made four shots out of 17 attempts.
On the other hand, the hot shooting Knights who have been averaging 17.7 triples in their last three games still sank ten treys, which greatly hurt the defense of the Slingers.
Now donning the Knights jersey, guard Wong Wei Long previously played for the Singapore Slingers for seven years since the inaugural ABL season. His dagger triple in the dying minutes of the game was his 215th career three-pointer as he surpassed ABL veteran Leo Avenido. Maxie Esho led them in scoring with 21 points.
Fields had a double-double performance of 22 points and 13 rebounds, while Alexander also chipped in 22 markers. While Young spearheaded their offense in the first half with 13 points, he only came up with two points as the Slingers yielded to the Knights midway through the fourth quarter.
The 6-7 Singapore Slingers look to shake off the defeat as they host the sizzling Saigon Heat in Singapore this coming Sunday.
SCORES:
BTN CLS Knights Indonesia – Esho (21), Wong (18), Herring (16), Watkins (16), Jawato (10), Kurniawan (8)
Singapore Slingers – Fields (22), Alexander (22), Young (15), Raj (4), Goh (4), Tay (3), Oh (2), Ng (2)
