ABL: Patriots’ Ardy Larong ejected for punching Slingers’ Donald Little

By Amir Yusof/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sunday, February 12, 2012 — The gamesmanship on court between Donald Little (#14) of the Singapore Slingers and some of the Philippine Patriots took a nasty turn on court in the final minute.

As the Patriots were closing out their 80-75 victory over the Slingers in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), Ardy Larong (#45) punched Little in the groin after the play was called for another infringement.

Larong was immediately ejected.

Little was winding up the Patriots with his incessant talking on the court and some of the Patriots, like Larong, could not take it.

In the opening quarter, Patriots’ Al Vergara had a run in with Little, sparking furious reactions from both sides. From then on, every time the Patriots conceded a foul, whether it was the wrong or right call by the officials, the entire away bench would rise in protest, screaming verbal abuse at the referees.

At one point, an obvious foul by Patriots’ Frederick Rodriguez that was correctly called led to the entire Patriots bench sarcastically applauding the decision. Not only that, they were audibly telling their players to continue fouling the Slingers.

The Patriots had a total of 27 team fouls, almost double the number committed by the Slingers.

In the middle of the third quarter, Patriots head coach Glenn Capacio even kicked his chair down after another call he disagreed with and his staff started chorusing “Five versus eight”, encouraging the large number of away team supporters to do the same.

Andy Larong’s physical assault of Little after the play had been stopped was the finale in a disgraceful Patriots show. Some Patriots fans were shockingly proud of his disgusting act, applauding Larong as he walked off to the dressing room.

“I like the fact that the game was physical. It suited me, really it does,” said Little.

“I’m not too upset by the result as there’s 19 games to go. I’ll definitely practice free throws now in the coming days but it was a waste today. If I had scored those free throws, we would have won,” added Little with an apologetic grin.

Patriots coach Capacio declined to comment after the game.

The Singapore Slingers were outplayed in their 75-80 defeat by the Patriots. Little missed a whole bunch of free throws, hitting only 6 of 16. Offensively, they struggled to convert their chances into baskets, converting only 24 of 57 shots.

“We were poor offensively today and we didn’t convert our free throws. This we need to keep working on to improve. Our opponents were slightly better than us on the court,” said Slingers head coach Neo Beng Siang.

As far as playing basketball goes, the Slingers deserved to lose. However, the Slingers deserved to be lauded for their ability to maintain discipline and composure in an intense game.

Looking for the Slingers’ fixture schedule? All here: Singapore Slingers 2012 ABL Fixtures

Quarter by Quarter Scores
Slingers vs Patriots
1st Q: 11-18
2nd Q: 25-13 (36-31)
3rd Q: 18-28 (54-59)
4th Q: 21-21 (75-80)

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Slingers Game Box Score

Patriots Game Box Score