The Singapore Slingers have officially booked a ticket to the ABL playoffs with big 71-68 win on the road against the BTN CLS Knights Indonesia Wednesday night at the GOR Kertajaya, Surabaya.
Singapore joins the Macau Black Bears as the hottest team in the league with four straight wins after their newest conquest on the road.
The Slingers were down by three points as the game neared its end and that was when Xavier Alexander stepped up to lead the charge. He nailed a triple to tie the count at 65-all and then gave his team the lead with a layup on their next play.
The Knights had the perfect opportunity to tie the count but Daryl Watkins, who struggled with his free throws in the game, could only come up with a split. This opened the door for Alexander to add to his heroics as he made a fallaway jumper to stretch their lead to three, 69-66.
Douglas Herring tried to keep the Knights in the game with a basket but Singapore got big plays in the dying seconds from their locals with Desmond Oh picking up a crucial rebound and Larry Liew taking care of business from the free throw line to preserve the victory.
Like what happened in their last meeting, the Slingers were once again unkind to their former teammate as they limited Wong Wei Long to only a single point as he only took one attempt from the field.
John Fields continued his stellar play for the Slingers with 25 points and 18 rebounds although he committed eight turnovers. Alexander chipped in 23 points, six rebounds, and eight assists while Jerran Young struggled with only seven points.
Up next for the Slingers is a big battle against defending champion San Miguel Alab Pilipinas as that game could really gauge how well Singapore could perform in the upcoming playoffs.