RP Patriots eye 2nd win in ABL tiff

SINGAPORE – The Philippine Patriots go for their first back-to-back wins when they tangle with the dangerous Singapore Slingers today in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) Invitational Championship at the Singapore Indoor Stadium here.

The Patriots, who arrived in this island state yesterday, battle the Slingers at 4 p.m. with the Filipino cagers determined to follow up their impressive 76-69 win over Indonesia’s Satria Muda Britama in the lone opening game last Saturday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Team manager Erick Arejola and assistant coaches Bogs Adornado and Ryan Dy see an exciting battle with the Slingers, noting that the Singapore locals have improved tremendously.

“We really have to play hard against the Slingers, they’re a very dangerous team. The key to our success is defense, we have to double what we did against the Indonesians defensively,” said Arejola. “We also have to shoot well from the outside to lessen the burden for our imports.”

The winner in today’s match will take the early lead in the six-nation tournament using a home-and-away, triple-round elimination format.

Aside from their two hard-working imports in Americans Michael LeBlanc and Kyle Jeffers, the Slingers also boast of two exciting guards in Al Vergara and Marcus Ng.

Never mind his unorthodox albeit entertaining court antics, Jeffers is turning out to be the team’s main man as shown by his 18-point and 20-rebound performance in their 87-69 win over the Brunei Barracudas last Sunday.

LeBlanc, who played for the Harbour Centre-backed RP team in the SEABA Champions Cup last year, was equally awesome by coming through with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

But the biggest concern of the Patriots, co-owned by Harbour Centre CEO Mikee Romero and TV-5 president Tony Boy Cojuangco, is how to neutralize the Slingers’ little court general in Vergara, who had 10 points and eight assists in their win over the Barracudas.

“Their (Slingers) offense all start from Al, so we have to pressure him immediately in order to disrupt their pick-and-roll play,” said Dy. “Pick-and-roll is their bread and butter so we have to deny Al any access.”

Arejola and Adornardo are confident that guards Christian Coronel, Warren Ibanez and Froilan Baguion can hold their own against Vergara whom they have played during their PBL days.

Also crucial for the Patriots is the performance of imports Jason Dixon and Brandon Powell and Fil-Am Rob Wainwright. Dixon tallied only 11 points on a 4-of-11 shooting and eight rebounds after getting into foul trouble early.

Good thing for the Patriots, Wainwright came out smoking, making 10 of his 15 points in the first quarter alone before Powell, Coronel, Baguion, Edwin Sta. Maria and Ibanez came through with clutch baskets in the final half to finally pull away.

Powell led the Patriots the last with 18 markers and nine boards.