Hadtex upsets Aspac in Kobatama final
Hadtex upsets Aspac in Kobatama final
JAKARTA (JP): In a titillating rough and tumble battle,
defending champion Aspac of Jakarta yesterday lost its crown to
Hadtex of Bandung, its semifinal's runner-up, by just a three-
point margin in the National Pro Basketball League's grand
final.
The final 57-54 score showed how muddy yesterday's battle was,
which made advancing by two points, let alone three, extremely
difficult.
"I don't know why our players could not finish as usual," Irawan
Haryono, Aspac's manager, said in disbelief.
For Aspac, which had been unbeatable since the league's kick-off
in September, the loss was quite anti-climactic. The victory was an
unexpected veni, vidi, vici for debutant Hadtex whose target was
only to enter the top eight,
"Perhaps we were too tense because as defending champions, we had
to win," Irawan said, "After all, they're better."
Suwandi Bing Adi, Hadtex's manager, said the key to his team's
victory was playing slow. "We deliberately played slow in order to
make them restless and trap them in their own emotion," said
Suwandi. Another factor was that his team formed a very strong
bulwark, Suwandi added.
Though losing the battle, Aspac demonstrated extraordinary
tenacity in coming close to Hadtex, which had taken the lead since
the first half (32-24).
In the dying minutes, Aspac's Mohammad Rifki shot a three pointer,
making it 46-45. But a few seconds later, center Casey Crawford took
revenge with two three-pointers to give Hadtex 49-45, 51-47.
Then, Aspac's errors jacked up Hadtex's score through free throws
from 53-47 to 54-47, 55-47, 56-49. At this point, Bobby Parks's
three pointer followed by Rifki's a few seconds later made the score
56-54 and sent the 5,000-seat Senayan Basketball Hall, which was
packed beyond capacity, into a frenzy.
But at 0:19, Aspac made another error on which Hadtex capitalized,
making the score 57-54, which the Hadtex players managed to keep
until the game's end by deliberate delays.
As the first winner, Hadtex won prize-money worth Rp 20 million
(US$9,116) and two trophies, the league's trophy and the Indonesian
Basketball Association (Perbasi's) trophy.
Runner-up Aspac got Rp 15 million and a trophy. Third and fourth
winners, Indonesia Muda and Bima Sakti, won Rp 10 million and Rp 5
million respectively.
The other four finalists, Pelita Jaya of Jakarta, Siliwangi of
Bandung, Pacific and CLS of Surabaya finished fifth, sixth, seventh
and eighth respectively.
Yaksono Soerodjo, the league commission's chairman said this
year's league, which for the first time in its 12-year history
featured import cagers, was successful.
Third place
Indonesia Muda found consolation for its upset loss to Hadtex in
the semifinals with a lackluster 64-58 victory over Bima Sakti of
Malang, East Java in the play-off for third place earlier yesterday.
Man-of-the-match Trasel Rone led the Jakarta side with a game high
27 points, including five three-pointers. Nano Sukarma regained the
form he dropped in Saturday's semifinal by scoring 17 points to
confirm past champion Indonesia Muda's control over the East
Javanese.
It was Indonesia Muda's second win over Bima Sakti within a week,
following its 85-66 victory in their Group B round-robin match on
Wednesday.
The organizer announced Bima Sakti's center, Scott Patterson, with
344 points as top American scorer, and his teammate, guard I Made
Sudiadnyana, with 203 points, as top Indonesian scorer.
Perbasi reelected chairman Harmoko, who is also Minister of
Information, told reporters that Perbasi's national congress, which
was concluded yesterday, agreed to introduce Women Basketball League
(Kobanita) next year.
Harmoko said next year's emphasis of the association policy would
be on training national coaches. Hence, it was necessary to import
foreign coaches to train them, he said. Harmoko also said that to
promote basketball the congress decided to fix Oct. 23 as National
Basketball Day. (arf)