Thanks to Nic and Precious again, I popped over to the Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday afternoon with Lyn (my boo), Lennie, Sharon and a bunch of other close friends to catch a rematch between the Singapore Slingers and Air 21. Both teams first met on the opening night of the Singapore Challenge Series last Wednesday where the Slingers gutted Air 21 with a 38-point win.
Tip off!!
Although Air 21 did play much better this time round, they were still out muscled and outplayed by the Slingers despite the latter trailing all the way to the third quarter. Once taking the lead, the Slingers didn’t look back and exploded all the way to a 98-85 victory. Although as a Slingers’ fan, I must give a thumbs up to Air 21 for their level of play. Physical plays and cheap shots aside (this is me being bias), the Philippines Basketball Association’s finest made pretty good plays and were sharper in their jumpers compared to their last game.
Sitting at the South entrance this time round, we got a good view of the team’s warm up and I am certainly impressed with Air 21’s offensive finesse. Pretty much everyone in the team can dunk and their shooting percentage looked pretty high. To be honest, their team effort and preparation seemed to suggest that they are not only about to give the Slingers a hard time, but take home the bounty of $10,000.
The Slingers however were not ready to simply hand the $10,000 over to Air 21. Slingers Bad Boy, Eric Sandrin #14 dumped 24 points, new signee Al Vergara #1 scored 14 points and Blagoi Janev #21 took home 12 points. Dr. Darren Ng #8 who dominated the previous game with 28 points had to take a back seat in this time round with 9 points all thanks to Air 21’s concentration on defending him.
Left and right: Dr Ng’s acrobatic moves
Left: Sandrin with a block during the 1st half… | Right: Followed by a stuff in the 2nd..
The game’s noteworthy player goes to Armein Kirkland #23 who contributed 22 points. The 2.04m Forward hailing from the United States showed no mercy to the visiting team as he helped led a Slingers charge during the third quarter. Although pretty much same the height as the great Michael Jordan (wait! I am not comparing them, just the height), we can’t seem to figure why he doesn’t furiously finish his drives with a dunk. All we get is just nice lay-ups from him. However, we would probably see him doing so in due time…~cross fingers~.
Left and right: No dunks, just lay-ups. But heck, we still get our two points
Somewhat similar to the previous game, the usual confrontations yet again paid a short visit to the stadium. I didn’t really catch what happened, but as my eye left the camera, I saw big man Blagoi Janev approaching an Air 21 player ready to take him on. However, the referee intervened in time allowing both sides to cool off. In addition, as the game came to a close, Eric who could have taken the last two points was unable to convert a would be magnificent dunk as an Air 21 player ran towards him sending Eric cartwheeling mid-air and landing on his shoulder. It took a good few minutes before the shaken Eric could get on his feet and headed to the dressing room. I hope he is doing alright.
Left: One pissed off Janev | Right: Slingers helping Eric to get up
As the whistle blew, the Slingers stood undefeated in the Singapore Challenge Series. I believe they will spend the coming week or so training for the next game as they meet with yet another team from the Philippine Basketball Association, Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants (no serious..not kidding). I think this is going to be another one heck of physical basketball game again. Tickets are available at Sistic. Gooooo Slingers!!
More photos in my Flickr album here.
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Hey Jason,
Great write up on the game again. We will be going to Taiwan tomorrow to play a tournament before returning to play Purefoods. I’ll see eric today and let you know how he is.
What a cool game I missed
Nic from South Carolina
Darren: Hi hi, wah I am so honoured that you left your comment
. Great meeting you yesterday. Wanted to say hi again but by the time I rushed to the loo after the game and headed back to the court, there were so many people crowding around you guys. Figured we’ll meet another day.
All the best in Taiwan man..go kick some butt yeah? And yeah, let us know how Eric is doin and tell him to keep the bad boy status man..~snigger~
Nic: oh yah man..it was a pretty close game till the 4th quarter when the Slingers took over..hehe. See ya’ll on 30th when we meet the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants (man I love their name)…
love their name too…tender juicy giants!
its because purefoods are known for their “tender” and “juicy” “giant” hotdogs in the Philippines. now you why their team is named like that. cheers!
can’t wait for the game on 30th. as usual, u have great photos, jason. i posted (on darran’s blog) a photo that my friend took, of darran’s acrobatic moves haha. (front view of the one u took!)
gelo: Howdy and thanks for visiting my blog. OIC, so it is a hotdog company that is sponsoring them eh? Still, that is one heck of a name for a basketball team and I can’t begin to tell you how much I love it..oh but but..I am still rooting for the Slingers tho..
Daphne: aiya..thank you thank you..~blush~. Lemme go check the site man..wanna how how he looks at the other end..heh..
I really like the way Eric Sandrin played and I hope he is okay at the moment. Hopefully he does show off some cool dunks really soon to get the crowd excited. Seriously, the Singapore crowd really loves him.
Hey Jason, can share with us tips on what kind of camera settings to use for indoor sports? As Daphne said, your photos are really something.
I had to throw out ALL the photos I took of the game. *sigh*
Darren tell Eric to get well soon. Stupid guy who faul-ed him wander who thought him to play ball what an a**hole =) goodluck in Taiwan and keep updating us bout Eric
Gabriel: Hi and thanks for visiting my site. Yeah Eric has some wicked fearless dunks esp for big guy. Well when it comes to basketball, such dunks and erm..’attitude’ does boost a team’s morale and I think Eric is doing a fine job of it.
Heck you are right to say the Singapore crowd loves him. Now all we need to do is to get more Singaporeans in the stadium and form our own Indoor Kallang Roar if you get my drift…
Hillary: Heheh..no prob man…will let you guys know more during the game next week yah? Easier if I show you..heh..
Eric Fan: Yeah it was kinda dirty wasn’t it…rest well Eric..
Hey Jason i would like to thank you as well for keeping the fans of the singapore slinger who are not living in Singapore so much information. I really wish i can join you guys in the indoor stadium cheering for them.
Eric Fan: hey no probs man..I am a big Slinger fan so yeah will keep writing for them. Come over one day and we party man
heh..