Aspac books semis berth to mark last performance

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta-based Aspac basketball club marked its exit from the women's league by cruising to the semifinal of the Megawati Soekarnoputri Cup women's basketball tournament at Senayan basketball hall here.

Aspac overpowered Bhinneka Sritex Solo 69-58 on Tuesday to set up a semifinal clash with defending champion CLS Surabaya on Wednesday. Aspac, runner-up in pool B, collected five points after winning two games and losing one.

MP Medco of Jakarta, which is unbeaten in two games, will play powerless Sahabat of Surabaya on Tuesday night. Sahabat has lost twice.

Should Medco win the match, it will meet pool A's runner-up Rajawali of Bandung. Rajawali beat Rajawali Sakti of Surabaya 87- 42 on Monday to book its semifinal berth. Rajawali has five points after winning two and losing one game to CLS on Monday.

Although the tournament bore the vice president's name and was opened by Megawati herself on Monday, apparently it has not given spirit to the participants.

Aspac team manager Irawan Haryono confirmed after Tuesday's match that the women's team would be handed over to Mahaka Satria Muda club, on the spot after its men's team won the 1999 national basketball league (Kobatama).

"This is our last performance. The girls will be training with Mahaka Satria Muda club after this. We have no time to train these girls and their coach is busy training the national team or preparing the team for the national games. We don't want to neglect the girls," he said.

He said that there was no transfer fee in the deal because Aspac had never used a contractual agreement with its players.

"If I could sell the players, I wouldn't give them to train with other clubs," he retorted. Aspac men's team has done better, finishing third in 1999 Kobatama.

He also said that training young girls to play basketball in the club was more difficult because the club must be responsible to the girls' parents.

"We have to keep our eye on these girls because we have responsibility to the parents," he said, adding that it was also difficult to assemble the girls because they had other activities.

Irawan also said that Aspac, who was the bottom finisher in last year's tournament, had not set a target in this event. He said that his club had never won against CLS in their previous meetings. "The girls are happy now because they can go to the semifinal. This must be our sweet memory," he said.(ivy)