Deadly Slingers extinguish Alab Pilipinas on the road

San Miguel Alab Pilipinas fell off the top spot in the Asean Basketball League (ABL) on Sunday night following a lackluster performance on the road for an 85-64 loss to the Singapore Slingers at OCBC Arena.

The Filipino ball club was held to a season-low output as the Slingers rolled to a wire-to-wire win that avenged their defeat to Alab in Santa Rosa, Laguna, last month.

Alab couldn’t seem to find a way to stop Xavier Alexander all game-long as the Slingers reinforcement finished with 31 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and a season-high eight steals.

When Alexander took a backseat in the second half, it was another import in Marcus Elliot who put on a shooting clinic for Singapore, hitting three of his five triples in the fourth period to finish with 19 points.

Anthony Mclain also delivered a monster performance on the defensive end with seven blocks to go with 18 points as the Slingers evened their record to 2-2.

Elliot, who won an ABL title with Hong Kong’s Eastern in 2017, gave Singapore its biggest lead, 79-47, with a triple with 6:34 left.

It was Alab’s third loss in eight games as it dropped to second behind Mono Vampire with a 5-2 record.

But two losses in the last three games will be a cause for concern for coach Jimmy Alapag, whose team shot just 34 percent and had nine more turnovers with 15.

Alapag and his crew also lost a lopsided one two weeks ago and he readily took the blame for it.Sam Deguara finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, but he was the only Alab player in twin digits as imports Khalif Wyatt and Nick King struggled for a combined 6-of-19 from the field. INQ