Slingers finish fourth in Merlion cup

SINGAPORE — Hopes were high for the Singapore Slingers to put up a strong display in the bronze medal match of the Merlion Cup tournament yesterday, especially after just narrowly missing out on the final on Saturday with a 72-70 loss to Filipino outfit Mighty Sports.

But the Slingers were disappointed in the end, after they were given a 94-55 whipping by the Seoul Samsung Thunders and finished fourth.

Despite a strong start by the home side, who were using the six-team Merlion Cup competition as warm-up for the new Asean Basketball League (ABL) season, the visiting Thunders quickly took hold of proceedings at the OCBC Arena.

The two-time Korean Basketball League champions — powered by their star player Lim Dong Seop and American imports Ricardo Ratliffe and Michael Craig — stomped to a 23-13 lead at the end of the first quarter. They widened the gap to 45-29 at the half, and extended it further to 76-49 with 10 minutes left, eventually winning by a 39-point margin.

With the new ABL campaign tipping off on Oct 24, Slingers’ coach Neo Beng Siang was disappointed with the heavy defeat, and listed three key areas that he will work on with the team ahead of the new season. They are: Selecting quality foreign imports for the team; working on one-on-one containment of opposition players; and finding a better solution to deal with taller and bigger-sized players.

“Out of 10, I would give my team 4.5 overall (for their performance at the Merlion Cup). We have a lot of improvement to make,” said Neo, who was voted ABL coach of the year last season after leading the Slingers to the Finals, where they lost 2-3 to the Westports Malaysia Dragons in the five-game series.

“(But) we fought out there in every match, and it was only today that we didn’t perform (to our standards). So I’m disappointed that we let the fans down. We had just one week (of training together as a team) for this tournament, but that is not an excuse at all. We did not come up with enough energy.”

The 55-year-old added: “We need to work on our team defence, to (compensate for) our lack of height. We saw our weaknesses, and where we need to tidy up, especially boxing out against the bigger-sized teams. We need to grab the rebounds better.

“Our one-on-one containment is also not up to standard, and the players need more focus on that, and get ready to move their feet whenever.”

While two-time Pilipinas Commercial Basketball League MVP Jeff Viernes is now on trial with the Slingers at the Merlion Cup, Neo said he has not made a decision on whether to sign the Filipino star.

The Slingers, however, have confirmed that last season’s star players, Americans Justin Howard and Xavier Alexander, have been retained for this season.

Each ABL team is permitted to sign two international imports, and three Asean players.

Alexander — top scorer in yesterday’s bronze medal match with 22 points, eight rebounds and two assists — hopes the Slingers can add more quality players to the roster.

The 27-year-old shooting guard said: “The depth of our bench is not very deep right now. We were under-sized every game (at the Merlion Cup), but one thing our team didn’t do is give up. A lot of our guys are still doing university studies, and national service, so we were just trying to get everything together.

“I (definitely) have unfinished business (for next season), so we just need to piggy-back on the great season we had last year.”

Point-guard Wong Wei Long — whose buzzer-beater at last season’s ABL semi-finals sent the Slingers to a historic final — agreed.

“We would like to reach the finals again,” said the Singapore national cager. “Because it was such a bitter loss (in the final game) last year, we are going to try our best this season, play our hearts out, and leave (the tournament) with no regrets.”