Aspac crushes Bhinneka to retain Kobatama title

JAKARTA (JP): Defending champion Aspac Texmaco ousted Bhinneka Sritex of Surakarta, Central Java, 80-61 in the second best-of- three Nuvo Kobatama basketball league final to retain its title at the basketball hall in the Bung Karno Sports Complex here on Sunday.

Bhinneka players failed to show their best form to force a decider on Tuesday. Aspac took an early lead on Saturday by winning 87-72.

Aspac's young shooting guard Riko Hantono was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match after scoring most of the 15 points, eight rebounds and three assists. He did not make any turnovers and successfully executed all six free throws.

Overall, Bhinneka's forward I Made "Lolik" Sudiadnyana earned three titles -- top rebounder, top scorer and MVP of the season -- Ali Budimansyah and Marlon Adirangga of Bali Jeff Citra Satria Pelita of Jakarta topped the assists and block attempts respectively. Patrick A. Gosal of Dwidasa Mitra Guntur Jakarta headed the steal and Bayu Radityo of Satria Muda Jakarta was the most fashionable player.

Aspac started well in the first quarter, leaving Bhinneka 21- 17 in front of a home crowd of some 5,000 who had flocked to the hall.

Bhinneka appeared under pressure and failed to build on their teamwork.

Three-pointer specialist Hardono Putro Prayogo failed to do his job well. Bhinneka relied on Lolik to earn points but the latter only managed to score twice in the second quarter.

Bhinneka's players found it difficult to break Aspac's solid defense, forcing the visitors to earn just seven points at the end of the quarter.

In the third quarter, Hardono received enough of a boost and scored 14 points, four of them were from the three-point area. Bhinneka increased its score but it was too late for the club to chase Aspac, which extended its lead to 63-45.

An incident almost delayed the final match, when Bhinneka's point guard Anang Sulistiawan protested at referee Entis Sutisna's decision.

Entis fouled Anang for pushing Athmadi Mahendra of Aspac and the latter was awarded a free throw. Anang pushed and scolded Entis to show his dissatisfaction and spectators started to throw mineral water bottles onto the court.

Aspac players and officials hurriedly ran to the midfield and gestured to the spectators to stop throwing. The match resumed after being suspended for about two minutes.

The incident did not seem to affect either team. Hardono started the last quarter with two three-pointers but another three-pointer from Aspac's center Rommy Chandra widened the gap.

In the remaining three minutes, Aspac knew that the title was in its hand again. Aspac's coach Tjetjep Firmansyah started to hug the substitute players.

"This is the second time I have brought Aspac to win the title after I started to coach them in 1999. I can't give many comments today, I just want to say that Aspac had an excellent defense during the two days of final matches," he said.

Bhinneka's assistant coach Armyn Johan said that Bhinneka's management was satisfied with the result. "Entering the final is a good performance, because we skipped the Kobatama in 2000 due to suspension." (ivy)