Dewa United Basketball Wins IBL Competition For The First Time

JAKARTA - Dewa United Banten basketball made history by winning the IBL for the first time after defeating defending champion Pelita Jaya Jakarta after winning with a score of 74-73 in the third match of the IBL final which was held at the Soemantri Student Center Brodjonegoro Jakarta, Sunday night.

Dewa United Banten won 2-1 in the best of three match series, having previously lost the first game at home at Dewa United in the Tangerang Banten arena on Thursday (17/7).

Foreign player Dewa United Jordan Adams appeared the most dominant by scoring the most, namely .40 points, and Joshua Ibarra 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Dewa United won this victory by successfully rising from 12 points behind in the middle of the fourth quarter until finally winning with a final score of 74-73.

Playing at his own headquarters, Pelita Jaya was 7 points behind in the first quarter before finally being able to control the game and winning again when the first half ended with a thin score of 36-34.

In the second half, the game was still fierce with both teams returning points and there was a change in the advantage between the two teams.

However, four three three-shots of contribution from Jerome Anthony Bean Jr, Agas Goantara, and Andakara Prastawa became the difference that made Pelita Jaya again lead 58-52 at the end of the third quarter.

Pelita Jaya's performance continued in the fourth quarter with a point rate of 8-2, until they were 12 points ahead 66-54 when the final quarter only rolled 2 minutes.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, Dewa United rose to reduce the gap to one point in the remaining 1 minute 43 seconds, to 73-72.

The effort of the Children of God continued until finally managed to turn things around to 73-74 in the remaining half-minute. Pelita Jaya continued to try to fight back, but was unable to regain the points.

Jerome Anthony Bean is the top scorer with 20 points, Jaquori Mclaughin 11 points, and Jeffree stay 10 points.

In addition to making history as IBL champion for the first time, Dewa United became the second team in IBL history to win the final after falling behind, following in the footsteps of Pelita Jaya last season.

They won the IBL title since joining the competition in 2021, all of which managed to advance until the playoffs.