The Singapore Slingers worked hard all season long for the best chance to win the team’s very first ASEAN Basketball League title. All of the blood, sweat, and tears poured all over the region as led the Slingers back home where they’ll need one more win to crown themselves as kings.
Singapore had an opportunity to finish off the BTN CLS Knights Indonesia in Game 4 but they did not play with the same tenacity of the defensive end as the series was stretched to its limit after the home team picked up an 87-74 victory in Surabaya.
In Singapore’s two victories in the series, they limited the Knights to 58.5 points per game. In their two losses, the Slingers allowed 86.5 points per contest.
BTN CLS started establishing distance between them and the Slingers in the second quarter. A 10-3 run to end the first half of action gave the Knights a 46-34 advantage. A 10-2 start in the third powered by back-to-back triples from Brandon Jawato gave the home team a comfortable 56-36 lead and they would not be threatened from that point on.
Daryl Watkins has a huge bounce back performance as he finished with 28 points and 16 rebounds while shooting 11 of 13 from the field, a vast improvement from his five point performance in Game 4.
With the big man dominating inside, Jawato was able to get open outside as he had 17 points in the game, anchored on five triples. Maxie Esho chipped in 20 points in the game as they overcame Douglas Herring’s worst game if the series with only nine points on 2 of 11 field goal shooting.
Xavier Alexander led the way for Singapore with 25 points while John Fields labored for his double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds in 27 foul-plagued minutes.
The action now shifts back to the OCBC Arena where a huge crowd is expected to gather in support of the home team in their quest to win the championship. They worked hard to get home-court advantage and now they plan on using this perk to the hilt.
