High flying Aguilar stopping Jeffers from going to the hole. You can clearly see how high he jumps.
It was forewarned by one of my readers who left an indelible comment on my Cbox to watch out for this team. Smart Gilas plays like the Europeans as coached by former Eurobasket and Iranian coach, Rajko Toroman. They have a young squad average 22 years of age with a former LA Lakers player - #11 CJ Giles. Together with 2009 PBA Number 1 draft pick #16 Japeth Aguilar, the twin towers killed Slingers centre defense as clearly seen by the number of alley hoop dunks and offensive rebounds. By the 5th minute mark, the Gilas were up 12-8 with both Giles and Aguilar scoring 10 of the dozen.
Gilas Twin Towers against Brown and JeffersBut as we saw in the first game against Coca-Cola Tigers, the tenacity of our boys especially #33 Brown and #30 Jeffers came out fast to showed the Gilas what is Slingers' defense and did well to stop their scoring; as we managed to climb back up 13-12 with the first lead. Henceforth, I know tonight will be an exciting matchup.
Aguilar not going anywhere - Slingers Defence!
4 minutes into the 2nd quarter, Jeffers was going strong scoring a quick 10 points, with a nice Alley-hoop pass from Al Vergara. Slingers up 21-16.
Nothing #11 Giles can do about it! Jeffers 2-hand Jam out of the game high 20points!!Point by point, Slingers battled it out with the Gilas who were clearly quicker and has the height for rebounds and defense. At one point we were up 27-20, but through the 3rd quarter, the points were swinging back and forth 37-38, 45-43...it was just electrifying and heart stopping judged from the loud screaming and booing. We all can tell the crowd is having a great night.
No where to go!
The crowd enjoying themselvesInto the 4th quarter, it was clearly an intense game with about 6 minutes left into the game, Slingers were just down 1 point: 59-60 and suddenly Coach Toroman stopped the game with a questionable call by the Referees and somehow refused to leave the court, stopping the game.
It wasn't sure if this was the turning point of the game, but #16 Aguilar got hot going strong to the hole and got a few good Alley-hoops to strike into the heart of our defense which was sorely missing a good center. But our defense stayed tight and our locals did well with Wei Jian repeating his dozen points output and Pathman with his 10. But #1 Vergara was shut down tonight with only 7 points.
Desmond showing Defense!
Unstoppable JeffersOn hindsight, Slingers did well to lose just 3 points at 67-70 against the Smart Gilas Pilipinas squad which is a national developmental team whose ultimate goal is to reach the London 2012 Olympics. Not bad for our lads, perhaps we should also have a Singapore basketball team working towards the Olympics as it seems we might reach it more optimistically than the previous soccer goal 2010 set by Minister Mah! Haha ... but seriously our Sports Minister should come for a Slingers games and see the heart of our boys. Clearly my friends Vicky and Kelvin were moved by their passion especially from #5 Wei Long and #7 Desmond, whom showed relentlessness display in defence. So where are our Singaporeans? I do sincerely hope more will come to give them a chance.
The next match will be packed, our returning popular PBA team Ginebra San Miguel-owned Barangay Kings! So do get your tickets early, almost all my Filipino friends have already bought their tickets!!
Singapore Slingers vs Barangay Ginebra Kings
Date: Wed 30 Sept 2009
Time: 1940 hrs
Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium
Do come early as we expect a good crowd.
More of my pictures found here. Will add on more after the F1 weekend, rushing out to get some shots and a wild concert tonight!
