Joining Satria Muda, Ukrainian National Team Center Artem Pustovyi On Fire In The First Match

Artem Pustovyi (Instagram @satriamuda.id)

JAKARTA - Satria Muda Pertamina Jakarta (SM) has a new player to take into account. He is Artem Pustovyi, a veteran center playing in the Ukrainian basketball team.

In his debut song, Artem believes his team will be able to compete at the highest level of the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) 2024 by achieving positive results for the rest of the regular season. "In my opinion, this team (SM) has a good level of play, so we are ready to appear at the highest level," said Pustovyi on the IBL website monitored by ANTARA in Jakarta, Sunday. The Ukrainian center realized that he was a hope for SM at the rest of the end of the season after studying the club statistics that had struggled at the beginning until the middle of the season. Therefore, despite having a number of constraints on his debut against Pacific Caesar Surabaya, Saturday (8/6), the player as high as 2.18 meters would immediately adjust quickly so that he could contribute to the team. "This is my first experience coming to Indonesia, it's very hot air. I can't breathe when playing in the first half, but everyone helped me to overcome all the problems that exist," said the senior player who became the Ukrainian national team's subscription. He added that Indonesian people also warmly welcomed his arrival so he expressed his gratitude for the welcome.

While making his debut at IBL Tokopedia 2024, Pustovyi played 18 minutes 20 seconds with a contribution of 11 points and five rebounds, with details of three offensive rebounds (OR). Not only that, he also did one steal and one block.

He replaced the role of foreign players whose contracts were not extended by the club, namely Jarred Shaw. Currently, SM is ranked fourth in the 2024 IBL standings, recording 15 wins and seven defeats of a total of 22 matches.

In the last match against Tangerang Hawks Basketball, Sunday afternoon, SM won another match with a score of 102-71. The result extended SM's positive trend in the last seven matches, winning seven consecutive wins. The pride club of the Jakartans still has four more matches to end the regular season. The winning subscription team has also made sure one place to compete in the 2024 IBL playoffs.