Favorite team tops the standings in Kobatama

SURABAYA (JP): Western division favorite Aspac taught a good lesson to Bhinneka Sritex of the eastern division by defeating the eastern favorite 75-62 in the fifth day of the third series A Mild Kobatama national basketball league at the Pacific basketball stadium on Sunday.

In the second game, Citra Satria Pelita (CSP) of the western division disgraced Pacific Bank Swadesi 52-43 in front of its home crowd. It was CSP's first victory in this series.

Meanwhile, defending champion Panasia Indosyntec of the eastern division surprisingly lost to Jakarta's Mahaka Satria Muda 50-53.

Aspac small forwarder Riko Hartono earned the most valuable player of the day after scoring a magnificent 33 points, which was top notch since the series began on Wednesday.

"I'm so happy with my performance. I just do the shooting without expecting to score. I can't do that without my friends' support. They promise to treat me if I earn the MVP's title tonight," said Riko, who is studying at the School of Electrical Engineering at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta.

Jakarta-based Aspac outclassed Bhinneka from the first half, when it beat the top club from Solo in Central Java 43-34. With two national players in its squad -- I Made Sudiadyana and Hardono Putro -- Bhinneka tried to surpass Aspac in the second half, but its efforts became useless.

Aspac coach Tjetjep Firmansyah said he instructed his players to mark Lolik, also known as Sudiadyana, and Hardono.

"Bhinneka players could not identify which players should be marked on. Our players tried to mark Lolik and Hardono so they couldn't move so easily," said Tjetjep, who coached the national team for the 1999 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

Riko, who was assigned to mark Lolik, Bhinneka's power forwarder, said that Bhinneka defense was solid but many of its players were old. "Bhinneka has a good defense. But it has many old players in its team who get exhausted in the second half," he said.

Bhinneka's coach assistant, Hartono, said that his players wanted to save their energy for challenging Indonesia Muda (IM) Texmaco on Monday night.

"Our team could not work together in the second half and their physical endurance weakened. They were out of control. So we decided to pass over this game and save our energy for tomorrow. We don't want to force ourselves when we are sure that we can't win. Tomorrow's game is very important to us," he said. (ivy)