Singapore 24th September 2016
The Singapore Slingers started slowly falling behind early to Mighty Sports in their semi final match. An electric alleyoop dunk by Senegal National Team centre Hamady Ndiaye would give Mighty Sports a 7-0 point lead and the perfect start, while the Slingers were scoreless with three minutes gone by in the first quarter. Justin Howard would finally get going posting 6 points in the quarter to keep the Slingers in touch going into the first break trialing Mighty Sports 21-15.
The second quarter saw Howard continued to hustle inside and his efforts sparked a Slingers second quarter run. A three point shot by Wu Qingde would cap off a 9-2 run that put Singapore in the lead for the first time in the game 24-23. The two teams would continue to trade blows going back and forth at each other for the rest of the game. Slingers Filipino import Jeff Viernes would have the last say when he closed out the first half by freezing everyone in their shoes before finishing with an easy layup. The Slingers went into the half time break holding a 36-33 advantage. Slingers centre Justin Howard had a big second quarter posting 11 point giving the Slingers centre a double-double in the first half.
The Singapore Slingers started the second half strong and held Mighty Sports scoreless for the first three minutes. Dewarick Spencer shifted gears to start the half and poured in 17 of Mighty Sports next 20 points, pushing the team from the Philippines to a 53-46 lead but the Slingers would not fold as they had done the night before against the Shanghai Sharks. Fueled by a home crowd the Slingers went on an 8-3 run, cutting Mighty Sports lead to 56-54.
Neither team could break away in the 4th quarter with both sides trading baskets and the score was knotted at 61-61 with 4 minutes left in the game. A Xavier Alexander’s dunk caused an eruption in the stands, but his dunk was answered by a Dewarick Spencer 3 point shot, Spencer had caused the Slingers trouble all game hitting a number of big 3 pointer to keep Mighty Sports in the contest.
With the game in the balance it was a 3 point shot by Slingers big man Justin Howard with the shot clock running down that put the Slingers up 68-67 with less than 2 minutes to go. But as it was all game, Mighty Sports responded with guard Kiefer Ravena hitting a go-ahead lay up which was followed by a Joseph Yeo three that put Mighty Sports ahead 72-68 with under a minute to play and seemingly out of reach.
The Slingers would not give in on this night, and a crucial stop on defense followed by two big free throws from guard Wong Wei Long closed the gap to just 2 points, 72-70. With pressure piling up on both teams, the Slingers forced an in bounds error and pounced on a loose ball with 16 seconds remaining in the match, giving the Slingers one last shot at either tying the game or taking the lead. With less then 2 seconds left on the clock Slingers guard Jeff Viernes drove the lane but was called for a double dribble with only 0.3 seconds on the clock leaving no time left for a Slingers comeback victory.
The Slingers will now have less then 24 hours before taking on the Seoul Samsung Thunders in the 3rd/4th playoff tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 PM at OCBC Arena. Mighty Sports advanced to the Merlion Cup final where they will face the Shanghai Sharks in the Championship game at 6.00pm.
