Semarang's Glory earns first win at Kobatama

JAKARTA (JP): Glory of Semarang, Central Java, capitalized on Siliwangi's fouls in the last minutes and turned a 57-57 draw into a 70-64 victory. Glory beat the West Javanese team in a rough-and-tumble battle on the third day of the national semi- professional basketball league (Kobatama) yesterday.

It was the first, hard earned victory for the underdog team, as its own manager, Dani Kosasih, put it, after a 63-75 defeat to Pelita Jaya on the first day and a narrow 64-67 loss to defending champion Aspac the second day.

About six minutes from the onset, the two teams showed equal strength shot for shot. It was hard for Siliwangi, whose players will represent West Java in the next National Games (PON), to make points because the 2.1 meter Dan Gray, the team's only imported player and most reliable shot maker, was closely blocked by three and sometimes four players.

The first half ended 39-29 for Glory when its American-signed Darryl Flowers deliberately killed the time with useless dribbling.

Throughout the game, the two teams made a total of 15 fouls. As a result of their rapid but error prone nip and tuck game, each lost one of its players, Glory's Bisih and Siliwangi's Priam Wuwungan, due to foul trouble.

Siliwangi's Chinese coach, Huang Pin Jie, told The Jakarta Post after the match that his team was weaker and less experienced than Glory. "But I believe they did their best," Huang said. Huang also attributed Glory's victory to its two imported players, Flowers and Norman Marbury. "They got most of the points through these two," Huang said.

When asked what led his team to victory, Glory's manager, Dani Kosasih, told the Post that Siliwangi played too slowly. "If they had played faster, it would have been very, very hard for us to follow, let alone to score because our players' stamina had dropped after yesterday's hard match against defending champion Aspac".

According to Dani, his team, which is financed by the country's largest tobacco company, PT Gudang Garam, might seem to be fast but that actually it was Siliwangi's playing slowly gave the impression of a fast game. (arf)

Thursday's collated results Bima Sakti 75, CLS 44 Aspac 67, Glory 64 Siliwangi 62, Indonesia Muda 72 Pacific 73, Halim 72 Pelita Jaya 64, Hadtex 54

Today's program 4:30 pm Siliwangi vs Hadtex 6:00 pm Bima Sakti vs Petrogres 7.30 pm Halim vs Pelita Jaya 9:00 pm Glory vs Indonesia Muda 10:30 pm Pacific vs CLS