Slingers’ Defense Sting Knights To Halt Their Winning Streak

The BTN CLS Knights Indonesia were hot on the heels of the Singapore Slingers in the standings ahead of their meeting. Buoyed by a seven-game winning streak, the Knights made a marched up in the team standings because of their renewed confidence on offense. They were brimming with confidence as they geared up for a important match against Singapore where they ran into a brick wall.

The Slingers ended the Knights’ winning streak with a spirited 95-76 victory, Sunday night in front of a raucous OCBC Arena crowd. It was BTN CLS’s first loss in almost a month.

Jerran Young had his best game as a member of the Singapore Slingers as he finished with ABL career highs in points, rebounds, and three-point shots made. The talented import had 36 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists, while making 5 of 9 attempts from deep. John Fields had another double-double with 24 points and 13 rebounds while Xavier Alexander narrowly missed out on a triple-double with 21 points, nine rebounds, and 12 assists.

Delvin Goh represented the Singapore locals as the big man had 11 points and six rebounds in the contest.

After a tightly fought first quarter, the Slingers took control of the game early in the second as they went on a 10-0 run, powered by six points from Fields to enjoy their first double-digit lead, 32-20. Apparently, this would be the only scoring run that Singapore needed to put the game away as they never looked from this point on.

A layup from Xavier Alexander gave them a 20-point lead, 50-30, late in the second and this ballooned to 27 big points, 63-36, in the third after a dunk from Fields, allowing the Slingers to go on cruise control for the rest of the game.

More than the offense though, what helped Singapore get the important win was their attention to detail on the defensive end. In the Knights seven-game winning streak, they averaged 98.8 points per game with a high of 132 points against the Wolf Warriors. The Slingers held them below 25 points per quarter and shut them down with only 12 points in the second period.
The Knights only made 40% of their field goals, struggling with a 4 of 18 clip from the three-point range.

Defense was a total team effort for Singapore with Young and Fields getting four steals each while Alexander and Desmond Oh got three each. Fields was also a monster in the shaded area with seven blocks in the game.

The wrath of Singapore’s defense was at its meanest against former skipper Wong Wei Long. The former ABL MVP, who was playing for the first time as a foe at the OCBC Arena was averaging 16.8 points and 3.5 triples in their seven game winning streak but he was held down to just four points, all on free throws, his former teammates.

The Singapore win, coupled with a San Miguel Alab Pilipinas victory over the Saigon Heat, allowed the Slingers to grab the third spot in the standings with their 9-6 win-loss tally, just behind the Formosa Dreamers at 10-5.