The Singapore Slingers took care of business in their last game of the elimination round, defeating Mono Vampire 100-88, Sunday night at the OCBC Arena, to build steam for the upcoming playoffs.
Jerran Young led the Slingers with 32 points and 10 rebounds but it was a special night for Xavier Alexander who finished with 26 points, eight rebounds, and 10 assists and also claimed the top spot in the ABL’s All-Time Scoring List.
Known usually for their defense, the Slingers were fiery on offense in the first half, specially in the second quarter where they dropped 35 points on the Thai squad. Both teams were competing for nothing else but pride as a win or a loss would not have mattered in the standings but they still treated the Singapore crowd to an entertaining match that even got heated in the final period.
With the game all but decided, tempers flared as Malcolm white and Young got entangled leading to unsportsmanlike fouls on both imports.
However, cooler heads prevailed as they were quickly separated before the physicality escalated.
While the three imports of the Slingers played up to par with John Fields picking up another double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds, the big difference for the Slingers were the two locals who also scored in double digits.
Delvin Goh also registered a double-double. With 11 points and 12 rebounds while only taking six shots in the game. Ng Hanbin was also outstanding off the bench as he finally found his shooting form, nailing four triples and finishing with 14 points.
As both teams are gearing up for the playoffs, the bench players saw more minutes than usual. Coach Neo Beng Siang used 11 players while coach Douglas Marty used all 12 members of Mono Vampire with no one, not even their imports playing more than 25 minutes.
Singapore will no prepare for their quarterfinal matchup against the Macau Black Bears starting on March 31 at the OCBC Arena as the Slingers won the home-court advantage by finishing third in the eliminations.
