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| Donald Little led the Slingers in disappointing the Vietnamese fans who watched the Saigon Heat's home opener. |
*All images are from AseanBasketballLeague.com
SINGAPORE SLINGERS over SAIGON HEAT, 60-55
Saigon Heat absorbed a bitter ending to their home opener. Despite having an 8-point lead early in the third quarter and outrebounding the Slingers 48 to 25, the Heat fell to the Singapore Slingers in front of their home crowd at a packed Tan Binh Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City.
Slingers’ big man Donald Little inspired his team’s comeback in the third quarter by scoring 11 big points. Little finished the game as the lead scorer with 22 points and 8 rebounds while Filipino guard Don Dulay contributed16 points.
The Slingers had a tough start as they were able to score only 10 points in the first quarter and 8 points in the second quarter. To add to their troubles, Desmond Oh, who starred in the Slingers’ last game, had to leave the game in the second quarter after a collision with Heat import Julius Hodge. The Slingers’ injury woes did not stop there as import Louis Graham had to leave the game on a stretcher after what looked like an elbow to the face. Fortunately, Graham was able to recover and checked back into the game in the fourth quarter.
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| Louis Graham bucked an early injury to help the Slingers to their second win. |
The Heat struggled in the last quarter and only managed to make 1 field goal out of 11 attempts in the last three minutes of the game. Condsequently, their shooting percentage dropped to only 29%. Julius Hodge led Saigon with 18 points while Jonathan Jones had a double-double – 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Saigon Heat will try to get their first win against the Westports Malaysia Dragons this Saturday (Jan 28th) at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Slingers will also be playing this weekend as they host the Bangkok Cobras at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on the 29th of January.
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| Wei Long Wong contributed 3 points as the Slingers climbed atop the ABL standings. |
SGS 60 – Little 21, Dulay 16, Graham 11, Wong 3, Canta 3, Oh 2, Khoo 2, Matialakan 2, Lim 0
SH 55 – Hodge 18, Jones 17, Smith 11, Oeun 4, Trieu 2, Ly 2, Capati 1
QS: 10-15, 21-27, 40-42, 60-55
*Game Recaps compiled and compressed from AseanBasketballLeague.com
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