ABL: RP Patriots fall to Singapore Slingers

SINGAPORE – The Singapore Slingers foiled the Philippine Patriots’ late surge and rolled to their second straight win while Indonesia’s Sutria Muda Britama and the Kuala Lumpur Dragons scored similar thrilling victories in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) Invitational Championship. American imports Kyle Jeffers and Mike LeBlanc and Marcus Ng delivered the telling blows down the stretch as the Slingers outlasted the Patriots, 74-69, to take the early lead in the six-nation tournament.

The Patriots, who touched off their campaign with a 75-67 win over Sutria Muda two weeks ago, slipped to 1-1. Over at Nimibutr National Stadium in Thailand, Sutria Muda Britama got on the winning column by eking out a 78-75 triumph over the Thailand Tigers while the Kuala Lumpur Dragons got back at the Brunei Barracudas, 76-73, in Brunei. The Barracudas, who beat the Dragons, 94-76, in their first meeting, was paced by former PBA players Don Camaso and Leo Avenido with 23 and 17 points, respectively. In his debut for the Tigers, former Patriot Ricky Ricafuente sizzled for 23 points but his effort went down the drain after their last-ditch bid to turn the game around fizzled out. The RP Patriots will battle the Thailand Tigers on Sunday at the Ynares Sports Arena – their first in the country. "Our team played bad," said Patriots assistant coach Bogs Adornado. "Our shooting was poor. We had crucial turnovers. We also got bad breaks." The Patriots fell behind by 15 points in the third quarter but rallied mightily in the fourth behind the efforts of Christian Coronel, Warren Ibañez and the plodding Jason Dixon that saw them cut the Slingers’ lead down to 66-70 on a charity by Brandon Powell with still 28 ticks left. The Filipinos had the chance to move closer after a turnover by the Slingers but to the horror of the Patriots coaching staff, Ibañez was called for a 5-second violation during inbound that all but dashed their remaining hopes. The 6-foot-6 Ng then sealed the win for the Slingers with four straight charities. The Slingers, who beat San Miguel Beer and Coke in exhibition games prior to the start of the PBA season, were led by the 6-foot-11 Jeffers with 17 points while LeBlanc, who played as import for the RP team in the SEABA championship in Jakarta, Indonesia last year, added 15. The Patriots outrebounded the Slingers, 38-32 but they made only 26-of-74 tries from the field for 35 percent against 29-of-60 for 48 percent for the Slingers whose offense was orchestrated masterfully by Filipino guard Al Vergara. Powell led the Patriots for the second straight game with 15 markers and 11 boards while Dixon had 12 points and nine rebounds. Coronel was the top scorer for the locals with nine. - GMANews.TV