SINGAPORE – Playing in only his second match in his debut season with the Singapore Slingers on Wednesday night, teenage basketballer Zachary Helzer found himself distracted by the crowd.
He had free run of the court after getting a steal and was about to do a lay-up when he heard someone among the 800 spectators in the OCBC Arena shout “dunk it!”.
That caused a moment of hesitation which eventually saw him miss the basket. But the 18-year-old Singaporean had the perfect pick-me-up after, as he heard the voices of his teammates encouraging and cheering him on.
That gave Helzer all the encouragement he needed, as he repaid coach Neo Beng Siang’s faith in him by scoring 11 points – with the Slingers storming to their second consecutive success in the 2023 Asean Basketball League (ABL) Invitational season with a 111-69 win over the Cooly Bangkok Tigers.
Helzer said that the seniors have been very helpful with their tips and advice, and noted that the key thing they instilled in him was confidence.
The full-time national serviceman said: “They’re always telling me to shoot my shot. KB (Kentrell Barkley) is always saying keep shooting and keep taking those shots if I’m open, even if I miss them.
“That helps with self-confidence, which is most important. When you get your moment to play, you need to take advantage of that and it’s just good having confidence in yourself.”
After kicking off their 2023 campaign with an 84-82 win over NS Matrix Malaysia on Monday, the Slingers had a shaky start to their second game as they allowed the Tigers to storm to an early 5-0 lead.
But the hosts did well to remain calm and overturn the deficit, keeping their defence tight to force mistakes from the Tigers as they won the first quarter 32-21.
The Slingers carried their momentum into the second as the Tigers continued to fumble, allowing the hosts close out the half, 61-38.
Alert defending and good team plays by imports Chanceler Gettys, Xavier Alexander and Barkley helped run up the score, while locals Justen Chiam, Jackson Mah and Delvin Goh also got on the board.
After outscoring the Tigers 28-13 in the third quarter, the Slingers had a healthy 89-51 lead going into the final 10 minutes.
With less than six minutes to go, Neo fielded an all-Singaporean line-up with Chiam the highest scoring among them with 12 points and two rebounds, followed by Helzer.
Barkley finished with a game-high 32 points and eight rebounds, followed by fellow Americans Alexander and Gettys with 20 points each.
Alexander, whose earlier Slingers stint lasted from 2015 to 2020, also had seven rebounds and nine assists, while 2.10m centre Gettys finished with 16 rebounds and seven assists.
Neo was pleased with the result but he is wary of their next opponent, 2016-17 champions Hong Kong Eastern. The sides will clash on Saturday and the coach plans to work on the team’s half-court offence and ramp up some of the players’ defensive skills.
He said: “I’m happy to see them running the floor and pushing the ball. It was good to give the local players an opportunity but we still need to tidy up a couple of things for them.
“It’s a good start to the season and hopefully, we can get four wins in Singapore this week. This really helps us with our goal of winning the ABL. Sometimes our performance is on and off but we can keep building from here.”
