Indonesian men's basketball team wins first tour game

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian men's basketball team made a good start on Monday with a 95-78 victory over the Philippines Maritime Institute on the first day of the Philippine's National Basketball League invitation.

Indonesia, led by senior center Fictor Roring, took an early lead 26-16 in the first quarter. But the team spoiled its lead and was down 17-28 in the second quarter to narrow the first half 43-44.

In the third quarter, the Indonesians fought back to tie 20-20 and managed to extend the lead 32-14 in the final quarter to win the game at the PMI basketball hall in Manila.

Team manager Erick Thohir expressed satisfaction with the result as the team showed improvement in their form.

"The players performed very well. Riko Hantono, Ali Budimansyah, I Gede Agus Wahyudi scored the most during the game. Fictor Roring and Rommy Chandra were good in defense and so was Lolik (I Made Sudiadnyana)," he was quoted as saying in a media release from the Indonesian Basketball Association (Perbasi) on Monday.

The invitation also served as a warm-up for the team before competing at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur from Sept. 8 to Sept. 17.

Indonesia will play three other local college clubs: the University of Manila, St. Lorenzo and St. Francis, who are the champions of the country's four college leagues. The only league's semiprofessional club to attend the invitation is Chopat Metrix.

"Participants are mostly College League champions, so they are quite good as practice partners," Erick said.

In contrast to their compatriots, Indonesian women's players suffered another humiliating defeat for the fourth consecutive time to Junior Cantonese team in their last friendly match in Canton, China, on Saturday. Indonesia lost 42-74.

Despite the poor result, team manager Max B. Lani still praised the team as showing a significant improvement during their campaign in China. He said in the last game with the junior team the Indonesians had showed increasing self-confidence.

"The only reason why we kept losing was that we failed to net the ball and we allowed our rivals to make fast breaks," Max said from China.

The women's team will tune up in a series of friendly matches in Hong Kong starting from Wednesday until Aug. 5. The men's team will join them in Hong Kong to attend the 10th Super Kung Sheung invitation starting Aug. 5. (ivy)