I actually wanted to fill this blog entry with just pictures of Slinger Cheerleaders and talk about the amount of fine cold Brewerkz beer I had gulped down in between breaks. It is just too painful after the last close game loss with Smart Pilipinas, that we have to lose this game again. In what seems like a mere 5-point close loss, many of us observed that the boys seem to have lost heart in this match. Especially in the final 7 minutes of the 4th quarter, which I will do a blow-by-blow account to illustrate how we lost a 7-point lead in a blink of an eye.
From the tip off, it was clearly seen that we lack focus tonight. #23 Villaneuva did not even need to jump to have #30 Jeffers tipping the ball over to the Kings' side which ended in star player #47 Caguioa's quick hands to draw first blood.
#1 Vergara unmatched in speed for #47 Caguioa laying up the first 2 points of the night.
It was not sure if the Slingers were distracted by the screaming fans of the Ginebra Kings as they are the most popular team in the Philippines and the fans were clearly loud in supporting. Besides the loud fan-base and the quickness of the Kings, they were also able to penetrate tonight. Slingers were clearly missing #33 Brown, who was on a short term contract, and had played good defense providing the space needed to block out the attacks to the rim. And though we had #9 LeBlanc back for his first game and scoring a gallant 19 points for the night, he looks slow defensively. The Kings took advantage of the weakness the Slingers now have and started going to the hole thus having a high 50% field goal percentage. The quarter ended 15-19 with Mark ‘The Spark’ Caguioa scoring 7-points out of his game high 24-points. My Filipino colleague told me he is the man to watch out for, and clearly he was right though I later found out he was just recovering from an injury!
#30 Jeffers not reaching in time to stop #47 Caguioa from shooting.
Slingers stayed in the game with Jeffers scoring 10-points and Leblanc with 14-points in the first half as they warmed up and decided to go strong; ending the 2nd quarter 40-34 with a 6-point lead.
In the 3rd quarter, Kings stepped up to bring the crowds to their feet with exciting and physical plays which resulted in bad calls from the referees going both ways.
As you can see the Ref gave thumbs up to this play
(I shall reserve my criticism about the BAS referees having chalked up 2 technicals in my own amateur team games - I forgot to mention that both fouls were given while I was on the bench :P)
Men in Black - Our BAS referees looking cool#47 Caguioa's 4th quarter antics resulted in a 15-0 run. But it wasn't all his credit. Our Slingers basically choked in the final 7 minutes, how did they do it?
1) 65-58 : #8 Marcus was handling the ball and it got picked while passing by #5 White who blew passed #1 Vergara for a pass to #71 Tubid to score an easy 2.: 65-602) #9 LeBlanc missed a layup and after a tussle under the net,King's #23 Villaneuva got the defensive rebound and #71 Tubid tried to score and got fouled - 1 of 2 made at FT line.: 65-61
3)#8 Marcus holding possession and tried to pass it but could not resulting in shooting a wild trey and from the earlier matches, we know he is not his brother "Doc" Darren, missed the 3 pointer and eventually Kings got the rebound and pushed the ball up fast for #47 Caguioa to throw an easy hoop.: 65-63
4)Marcus tried to go strong to the hole and eventually had the ball stolen by #5 White again who blew passed #1 Vergara for a dish to #71 Tubid again for an easy layup (crowds on their feet for the fourth time).: 65-65
The crowd went wild!
5)Marcus got possession went to the baseline to feed into #9 LeBlanc, he hit Michael's leg instead and bounced off for #1 Cruz to steal for a fastbreak to #47 Caguioa for an unchallenged layup.:65-67
6)#5 Wei Long is now in possession controlling, lost the ball to #71 Tubid who quickly pushed up the fastbreak and he had 2 options - on his left was #47 Caguioa and on his right was #23 Villaneuva. Tubid chose Villaneuva, but he got fouled by a quick #12 Wei Jian. Villaneuva went on to shoot 1 of 2 FT.:65-687)Again scoreless effort and another change of possession. #71 Tubid pushed up to #47 Caguioa for another easy layup.:65-70
8)#47 Caguioa almost single handedly ended the game henceforth with a trey over Weijian. He scored 9 of the 15-0 run:65-739)Finally a field goal from a Slingers - Michael Wong fearlessly fired a baseline shot to end the run for his first field goal of the night, but the match was clearly over with under a minute left.:67-73
The final score is 72-77 with the boys taking it hard.
The only consolation was that as the boys walked off the court, a pocket of Filipino crowd actually gave them a standing ovation, somehow approving of their effort.
I would say though we beat them back in January( you can check Jase's review of the 100-68 win), the team has clearly grown faster and stronger. But then again, we did have a bigger and stronger line up last season. I would applaud our Slingers effort as it was clearly a possible win - had we not collapse offensively and watch the turnovers. A basketball friend of mine came to watch and one of his remark was, "Even the Constituency teams could play better...". I agreed with him but clearly this was not the same Slingers we saw in the first couple of games and quickly asked him to join for the upcoming Sunday Oct 4th game - To give them another chance. So I do hope Slinger fans out there, though clearly disappointed with this game, to come support them for the next game - details of the game is found below.
For more pictures of the game, please check it out here.
I am giving away 4 FREE tickets, proudly sponsored by the Slingers Management and Brewerkz Management.
I know there are many Filipino readers out there, so do take part and don't worry, I promise I won't throw you tickets which are behind Slingers bench! Ha!
Just to note that the 4 tickets come from participating in a blog competition - details here. For those who would also like to take part and have attended the Slingers vs Kings game as well, please blog before 7th Oct. All bloggers who participate will be given 4 tickets (for yourself and to give away on your blog entry) for any chosen game on the Slingers’ game schedule after 7 October. Just be the first 2 names I see on my Shoutout Box on the right for two tickets each (These would be ABL game tickets starting from 11 Oct).
Oh and for those who were expecting Slinger Cheerleaders pictures, you can also make your requests there, and I will post later!
Anyway do note the next upcoming final Game 4 of the 2009 SINGAPORE CHALLENGE SERIES kicks off this Sunday 4th October: Singapore Slingers vs SAN MIGUEL BEERMENGet your tickets from SISTIC. This will be the last game before ABL games start the following Sunday 11th October. Trying to remember how Beermen played the last time they were here - beaten by Talk N Text Tropang Texters.
