Long-time Singapore Slingers rivals Malaysia Dragons visit OCBC Arena tonight to open the 2016-17 Air Asia ASEAN Basketball season.
While the Dragons are no strangers to the Singapore team in name, the reigning ABL champions are much different in nature to the team that defeated the Slingers in Game 5 of the championship series earlier this year.
Gone from the Dragons are coach Ariel Vanguardia and the match-winning quartet of Reggie Johnson, Calvin Godfrey, Matthew Wright and Jason Brickman who combined to do most of the damage against the Slingers in all contests between the two teams last season.
Replacing them is coach Chris Thomas, who joins the team after a stint with the Canadian National Basketball League’s Orangeville A’s, world imports Marcus Melvin and Skylar Spencer, and Thai-American ASEAN heritage import Freddie Goldstein.
Singapore fans that watched this year’s Merlion Cup will recognise US veteran Melvin, as the big man poured in 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds against the Slingers for Taiwan’s Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor in the opening game of the tournament.
Fellow US import Spencer is a recent graduate of San Diego State University, where he proved himself a top rebounder and defensive specialist. Spencer, just 22 years old, was chosen by opposition coaches as the Mountain West Conference’s defensive player of the year in 2015 and 2016.
Goldstein is no stranger to the Slingers, as he joins the Dragons from the Thailand Hitech team who were last season’s semi-final opponents.
Slingers coach Neo Beng Siang said it had been difficult to prepare for tonight’s match but hopes his players can stick to their own game plan to combat anything the Dragons throw at them.
“We are not very sure about their game style,” coach Neo said.
“They’ve got a new coach, new players, and a new system.”
The Slingers will be without injured duo Larry Liew and Wu Qingde for the season opener, but Desmond Oh has recovered from a wrist injury and will play tonight.
“The good news is Desmond just got back to training on Tuesday so he is good to go,” Neo said.
“We are all feeling excited for the first game of the season, and are really looking forward to it.”
The Slingers will back up less then 48 hours after Fridays game when they play new ABL team Alab Pilipinas on Sunday in the Philippines.
Tip-off for tonight’s game is 8.00pm.
Tickets for tonight’s clash are available at all APACTix outlets or at OCBC Arena from 7.00pm onwards.
http://apactix.staging.carbonhouse.com/events/detail/asean-basketball-league-201617
Sunday’s game will be shown Live on Starhub’s Hub Sports Arena (Channel 112/205) and on mobile devices on StarHub Go at 8.00pm.
