SINGAPORE - After surrendering so meekly in Friday's chastening 86-67 Game 1 defeat by CLS Knights Indonesia in the Asean Basketball League (ABL) Finals, the Singapore Slingers returned to the OCBC Arena on Sunday (May 5) as different beasts.
Neo Beng Siang's men were hungrier, faster and sharper as they routed the visitors 77-57 in Game 2 to get their best-of-five Finals series back on track.
Even without starting American point guard Jerran Young, the Slingers played great defence and made their shots count to get off to a 21-9 lead in the first quarter.
The Slingers were paced by ABL World Import MVP Xavier Alexander's 16 points and Defensive Player of the Year John Field's 15 points while Young also sufficiently recovered from a hamstring niggle to claim 14 points.
The Singaporean players, led by Ng Han Bin (14 points) and Desmond Oh (nine), also stepped up big time to combine for 32 points with some hot shooting from range.
But the key to the convincing win was solid defence as they restricted Knights' dangermen Darryl Watkins and Maxie Esho to a combined 20 points.
The Slingers then ended the game with an all-local quintet for the last 48 seconds.
The Knights still have home-court advantage as they will host Games 3 and 4 in Surabaya on Wednesday and Saturday, but the Slingers will look to build on this winning momentum.
