Lowly Kalila stuns Malang Avian Bima

Lowly Kalila stuns Malang Avian Bima

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Kalila, playing with nothing to lose as a league also-ran,
surprised an overconfident Malang Avian Bima Sakti with a 56-45
victory on Saturday in the seventh series of the A Mild
Indonesian Basketball League 2005.

Both teams played fast and loose throughout the game, making
for an entertaining contest.

Malang Avian Bima Sakti, ranked fifth in the 10-team league,
started strongly, with Andrie Ekayana and Hendry Sudjana finding
the basket as the East Java team took a 16-12 lead in the first
quarter.

But in the second quarter, seventh-ranked Kalila's Yudhi
Mardiansyah and Akbar Widyanto made several crucial points from
their respective two and three point shoots, reaching 32-29.

Malang Avian Bima Sakti, through Hendi, Iwan Muryawan and
Andrie tried to respond in the third quarter with three-point
shots, the speciality of the team's players, but more often than
not they came up short.

Kalila widened the margin to nine points in the third quarter
with a 46-47 lead.

In the final quarter, the situation was unchanged as Kalila's
strong defense prevented their opponents, who had been confident
of a win, from scoring.

Kalila manager Zainul Hilal said he had instructed his players
to ward off three pointers, and they stuck with it despite
falling behind at the beginning.

"We made a bad start, but later our players successfully
prevented Malang Avian Bima Sakti from making points from three
point shoots," he said. "We knew Malang Avian Bima Sakti is good
at getting three points but we did our job today."

Malang Avian Bima Sakti assistant coach Oei A Kiat said that
his players were overconfident and failed to play cohesively as a
team.

"We did well in the first quarter because we didn't give a
chance to Kalila players to develop their rhythm," he said.

"But later, Kalila found its rhythm and we have problems in
our three point shoots."

In Friday's evening game, CLS Good stunned defending champion
Satria Muda Britama with a 63-55 win in overtime after being tied
at 52 in regular time.

As of Saturday, undefeated HP Aspac (8-0) remains atop the
standings, followed by Panasia Garuda in the second place with
six wins and two losses.

Satria Muda Britama is in third place with six victories and
three losses, followed by Indonesia Muda Panasonic Telkomsel with
four wins and four losses.