12 December 2015: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
The Singapore Slingers extended their current win streak to 4 games with a hard fought 62-60 win in Vietnam against a determined Saigon Heat team.
The Slingers led for most of the closely fought match relying mainly on their team defense to pull out the win. Saigon grabbed their biggest lead of the game 4 points (51-47) with less then 5 minutes to play, but the Slingers didn’t panic and pulled level soon after. In the end it was the Slingers overall team defense that won out, holding the Heat to just 8 points in the final quarter and repelling the Heat on their final two offensive possessions.
For the home team, Saigon’s American Import Lenny Daniels led all scorers with 20pts, he also added 11rebs, 3 blocks & 3 assists to his final tally.
For the Slingers, the leading scorers were Xavier Alexander 17pts and Justin Howard 14pts. Alexander continued to be a stats filler adding 10rebs, 6 assists, 3 blocks & 2 steals to his 17pts while Justin Howard, who had been receiving treatment at the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) all week after injuring his hip in training early in the week, finished with yet another double/double, 14pts & 16rebs.
The Slingers again got big contributions from their local players who tallied 25 of the Slingers 62 points.
Slingers Head Coach Neo Beng Siang said ” We struggled on the offensive end tonight, we got plenty of good looks but we were unable to knock down the open shots”. Neo went on to add “although our shots were not falling our teams defensive performance was one of the best we have put together all season”.
The Slingers who have been on a brutal 6 straight away games schedule, due to their home playing venue being unavailable, have now won 4 of 5 away games pushing their overall record to 7 – 2 on the season. The Slingers will finish this 6 game road swing next Saturday at MABA Stadium in KL against the Malaysia Dragons, the team who gave the Slingers their last loss back on the 15th November.
Singapore Slingers Stats Leaders vs Saigon Heat:
Xavier Alexander: 17pts, 10rebs, 6 assists, 3 Blocks, 2 steals
Justin Howard: 14pts, 16rebs, 1 block, 1 steal
Wu Qingde: 10pts, 3rebs, 2 assists, 1 steal
Wong Wei Long: 9pts, 4rebs, 3 steals, 1 assist
Kris Rosales: 6pts, 4rebs, 4 assists, 2 steals
Desmond Oh 2pts, Delvin Goh 2pts, Russel Low 2pts
Quarter by quarter scores:
Qtr 1: Slingers 18 – Saigon 14
Half Time: Slingers 36 – Saigon 30
Qtr 3: Slingers 52 – Saigon 52
Final: Slingers 62 – Saigon 60
