The Singapore Slingers started the Challenge Series in style as they outgunned the Coca-Cola Tigers at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Al Vergara led the Slingers with 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists, with new import Kyle Jeffers adding 14 points on 7-8 shooting from the floor.
The Tigers were led by Mark Macapagal, who came off the bench and erupted for 20 in 16 minutes, while famed PBA bigman Pauliasi Taulava pounded the paint for 15 points and eight rebounds.
The first quarter started fast and furiously as both teams tried to exert their will on the game.
Hong Wei Jian missed the Slingers first shot of the game, and the Tigers quickly worked the ball down the lane for an easy score by Norman Gonzales.
The fast pace would continue throughout the first ten minutes, with possession at a premium, and points and fouls aplenty. In the end, the Slingers would lead 26-20 on the strong play of Wei Jian and Kyle Jeffers, who led the team with six points apiece.
The Singaporean outfit came into their own in the second quarter, with Al Vergara and Jamal Brown leading the way. With seven minutes left in the quarter, Singapore's Filipino import Vergara showed that he had plenty left in the tank as he soared for the rebound and took the ball down the court for a go-ahead three.
But the Tigers clamped down on defence, forcing the Slingers into turnovers as Coca-Cola flooded the lane and gassed out the perimeter for easy transition points.
Tualava started to do damage in the post, pulling the Tigers within five at 39-34 with three minutes left.
Singapore countered by putting Hong back into the game, and it paid immediate dividends for the Slingers as he knifed his way into the lane for a simple lay-in.
‘Big Asi', as Taulava is affectionate called, then surprised the crowd as the burly center popped outside the three-point line to sink a big trey, but Singapore had the last laugh as Vergara caught the ball on the inbound a few possessions later, took a dribble past the halfway line, and sank a dagger of a buzzer-beater to end the half at 46-41, advantage Slingers.
The ABL team's form continued in the second half as they fed off the turnovers of the PBA outfit to score. Pathman was the beneficiary of Singapore's unselfish Princeton offence as he scored seven points in the third quarter by just planting himself in the key.
Marcus Ng then erupted into life with five minutes left in the third quarter, as his forays to the rim put the Tigers over the foul limit, awarding Singapore freethrows with every subsequent foul.
However, the Tigers responded by putting in Marvin Cruz to defend the ball-handler, and it worked as he stole the ball and pressured Singapore's guards into more turnovers, resulting in fast points as they cut the deficit to 64-62 at the end of the third.
Frank Arsenjo then played his next move, inserting Vergara back into the line-up as Singapore went on another surge at the beginning of the fourth quarter, capped by the veteran point guard himself with a three-pointer to make the score 73-65.
Both teams traded points from then on as the Tigers roared back to make the score 76-75 with six minutes left, through an offensive explosion by Macapagal, who tallied 14 points in the fourth quarter.
The Singapore Indoor Stadium rocked, and it was the Rampage down the River as both sets of fans cheered their team on and the players playing more and more agressively, bordering on the illegal and forgetting the ‘friendly' nature of the exhibition game.
When Tigers coach Kenneth Durembe finally called a timeout with 4:07 left in the game, the score stood at 81-77 Slingers.
Slingers newboy Marcus Ng then put the game out of contention a few possessions later as he went coast-to-coast off a Brown rebound to put the ABL team up eleven points with a minute and fifty seconds left.
The local boys then worked the clock as the game finished 93-85, getting the Challenge Series off to a promising start.
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