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Game Over:Slingers' Marcus Ng and Hong Wei Jian looking forlorn as their dream of an ABL title ends.(Photo:Dennis Saw)
How far would you expect an inexperienced team to go in the inaugural season of ASEAN Basketball League (ABL)? Surviving the regular season without too many losses should be good enough, especially when you are looking at teams made up of players with immense regional credentials like Warren Ybanez (Philppine Patriots) and Ronny Gunawan (Satria Muda BritAma).
So when the Singapore Slingers finished second out of six teams in the regular season to book themselves a place in the best-of-three semi-final playoffs, Singaporeans were pleasantly surprised. Understandably, more Singaporean fans turned up at the Slingers' home games to show their support. Confidence levels soared when the Slingers ripped their Indonesian opponents apart in Game 1 of the playoffs, but reality sank in when Game 2 proved too much for the Slingers to handle. The fight for a prestigious place in the finals against the Philippine Patriots was down to the wire. And down to the wire it really came to when the score was tied at 62 - 62 at the end of the 3rd period. But when it mattered most, the vast difference in experience showed and the Indonesians managed to triumph 86 - 76.
What really happened to the Slingers? "Unfortunately, not everything went right for us today", head coach Frank Arsego reasoned, "I am really proud of the boys but we've still got some learning to do". Local star Hong Wei Jian also shared the same sentiment. Asked whether he felt certain commentators were right in saying that the Slingers lacked experience, Hong said that it was a "fair comment". "After all, for the locals, this was the biggest and most prestigious tournament we've taken part in", he added.
For other players, defeat was a bitter pill to swallow. Asked to sum up the game, a visibly distraught Kyle Jeffers could only state the obvious, "we didn't win". Perhaps this defeat also forced the team and its fans to look at themselves and ask, "what's next?" Well, ardent Slingers fans will be relieved to hear that coach Arsego has of yet, no intention to leave the team he so painstakingly formed. "We've built a good club here and I believe we actually brought basketball back to Singapore. It would be such a shame to quit right now." Hong was also upbeat about the future of the Slingers, stating that he, like many of the other local players, was just starting to like playing in a professional league and will want to come back better prepared. Jeffers, however, was not too certain about his future with the team. He believes it is ultimately still up to the management to decide if he stays or not.
The ABL will now conclude with a best-of-five final series pitting hot favourites Philippine Patriots against underdogs Satria Muda. As Satria Muda's top scorer Alexander Hartman puts it, "they've got a lot of weapons, and we'll have to deal with them with weapons of our own."
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