MILLER AND HARTMAN LEAD SATRIA MUDA TO VICTORY IN DECISIVE GAME 3 AGAINST SINGAPORE SLINGERS

Sunday 3 February 2010, Singapore - After a quiet first half, Nakiea Miller came to life in the second half and carried Satria Muda Britama to a 86-76 victory over the Singapore Slingers at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and a passage through to the ABL finals against the top seeded Philippine Patriots.

With just 2 points to his name in the first half and perhaps troubled by an incident off the ball with the Slingers point guard Al Vergara, the American was a different player after the interval, torching the hosts for 20 points in that crucial second half finishing with yet another double-double in 22 points and 14 rebounds.

With the series tied at 1-1, the Slingers were slight favourites with the elimination game 3 being played on their home floor but poor execution down the stretch in the fourth quarter led to their downfall as the Indonesians pulled away late to earn a memorable victory.

While Miller may have taken some time to adjust to the pace of the game, his import counterpart Alex Hartman carried his team on his back in the first half scoring 21 points doing his damage both inside and outside and eventually finishing as top scorer with 30 points and rightfully earning player of the game honours.

It didn’t matter who was guarding Hartman as both Michael LeBlanc and Marcus Ng tried their hand at containing the scorer but Hartman was at his perilous best and coming good on his prediction that they would win the crucial series decider.

The two earlier games had been blowouts for the home teams but game 3 was anything but that as 16 lead exchanges will attest to. Exchanging blow for blow, the game was tied at 62-62 at the end of the third quarter at which point Satria Muda took over.  

In fact, the Slingers scoring was very balanced with four players notching double digits but when the game needed someone to take over, the hosts became gun shy which suited the Indonesians to the ground capitalizing on some poor turnovers to seal the game late on.

After a poor game 2, Kyle Jeffers tried everything he could to lead this team further and was back to his best with a 19 point and 16 rebound effort. He received some able support from LeBlanc (15 points and 14 rebounds), Hong Wei Jian (17 points) and Marcus Ng (15 points) but it was all in vain.

The Slingers’ run in the inaugural ABL season may have come to an end but they will be able to hold their head up high having finished second in the league and their local players will undoubtedly be much better players for the experience.

As for Satria Muda, their season goes on and now will for sure enter the finals against the Philippine Patriots as heavy underdogs. The regular season series ended 3-0 in favour of the Patriots but Satria Muda will hope to provide more of a fight than that scoreline will suggest.

Game 1 will now be played in Manila, Philippines this Friday, February 12

For more information, please contact Mr Kuhan Foo, Chief Executive Officer of the ASEAN Basketball League via email kuhan@aseanbasketballleague.com, or Stella Oo, Marketing via email stella@aseanbasketballleague.com.