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.