Contributed by Darren Lai

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Wednesday, November 5, 2008 – Despite being without several of their regulars, the Singapore Slingers still managed to see off a determined Malaysian All-Stars side 92-80 in a Singapore Challenge Series game at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night.

With starters Darren Ng, Blagoj Janev and Eric Sandrin all out with injuries, it was left to Slingers’ back-up players like Chris Daniel and John Fitzgerald to pick up the scoring load, and they didn’t disappoint, with Daniel leading all scorers with 29 points. Fitzgerald added 17 while American import Armein Kirkland and Shane McDonald added 15 and 14 points respectively.

The Slingers' long list of walking wounded meant that two young promising local national team players Wong Wei Long, 20, and Desmond Oh, 22, found themselves with the rare chance to suit up in Slingers colours for the first time.

Janev and Ng were both out with ankle injuries picked up in training before the game. With star import Sandrin also yet to recover from a rib injury, the Slingers gave Pathman Matialakan, Singapore's only local professional, a starting berth for the first time in this Series.

The home side raced into early 8-2 lead on the back of some sharp 3-point shooting by Kirkland, but the Malaysians responded to level at 10-10, led by their imports Jamal Brown and Michael LeBlanc, and they managed to close the gap to just two points by the end of the first quarter (19-17).

Brown shot out of the blocks at the start of the second period with three consecutive field goals to turn things around for the visitors as the lead changed hands for the first time (27-23), forcing Slingers coach Frank Arsego to call time-out.

With the Slingers' shooting poorly from open court, connecting with only 27 per cent of their attempts, only some perfect free throw shooting by the pair of Daniel (8 for 8 ) and Shane McDonald (4 for 4) kept the home side within touching distance, finishing the second quarter trailing 39-40.

Whatever coach Arsego said at the interval must have worked as Fitzgerald and Daniel combined for 16 points at the start of the third quarter to help the home side wrestle back the lead and build up their biggest lead of the game at this point at 57-51. And with just under two minutes remaining on the clock in the period, diminutive point guard Wong got a run out and immediately showed his potential and composure with a steal before dishing out an assist for McDonald to lay up for two points, much to the delight of the home crowd. With Daniel on fire with 23 points at this stage, the Slingers closed out the third period leading 67-59.

With momentum firmly behind them, the Slingers powered to a 80-63 lead at the start of the final quarter, with 2.14m man-mountain Sam Harris dominant under the basket and having arguably his best game in a Slingers jersey. The Malaysians rallied to close the gap to nine points (80-89) with a minute remaining, but the Slingers eventually ran out comfortable winners by a final scoreline of 92-80.

The Slingers will play the reverse fixture against the same Malaysian side next this coming Sunday, 9 Nov, in Kuala Lumpur before traveling to Indonesia to play two more exhibition matches against Indonesian sides Garuda and Satria Muda on November 22nd and 24th.

Their next home fixture in the Singapore Challenge Series will be the highly-anticipated double-header featuring the first-ever regular season Philippines Basketball Association (PBA) game between Talk&Text and San Miguel, followed by the Slingers' match-up against a strong Smart Telecom National Selection side representing the PBA.

Tickets for the double-header on Nov 30 are available now at the Smart Wireless Centre at the Lucky Plaza Mall in Orchard Road. Ticket prices are $35, $25 and $15 with a free phone card.