Defeat Pelita Jaya Bakrie, Satria Muda Wins IBL 2021

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JAKARTA - Satria Muda Pertamina Jakarta won the IBL 2021 title after defeating Pelita Jaya Bakrie Jakarta 2-1 in a series of final rounds.

Satria Muda's title was locked with a 68-60 victory over Pelita Jaya in the third game of the final at Mahaka Square Arena, Jakarta, Sunday, June 6

This is the 10th championship trophy that Satria Muda has won since the Indonesian basketball league entered the professional era in 2003. If you count the Kobatama amateur era, overall Satria Muda already has 11 championship trophies.

This victory was the result of the persistence of the Satria Muda players even though they had to miss the fourth quarter almost without the captain Arki Dikania Wisnu who was fouled out.

Arki's absence ended with the triumph of Hardianus Lakudu, who took over the role as team leader for Satria Muda, with a double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Juan Laurent Kokodiputra also contributed 18 points and seven rebounds and Kevin Yonas Sitorus who scored 11 points off the bench, according to the statistics on the official IBL website.

Substandard performances were also seen from Pelita Jaya's captain, Andakara Prastawa Dhyaksa, who only scored two points from two free throws throughout the match.

Prastawa's low contribution was painstakingly covered by Agassi Goantara's 18 points, double 15 points and 13 rebounds by Vincent Rivaldi Kosasih, 12 points by Reggie William Mononimbar and 11 points by Muhammad Hardian Wicaksono, but these were not enough to prevent Pelita Jaya from losing.

The match was tight and a minute and a half passed with no points from either team, until Vincent was able to throw a dunk to open the points tap with eight minutes 26 seconds remaining.

However, Satria Muda looked relatively calm until Juan succeeded in a three-point play to bring his team to a 15-10 lead with three minutes 48 seconds remaining which practically forced head coach Octaviarro 'Ocky' Tam to request a time-out for Pelita Jaya.

Unfortunately, after the time-out Pelita Jaya was unable to provide an answer until Satria Muda was able to widen their 24-12 advantage through Kevin's two free throws which closed the first quarter.

Satria Muda started the second quarter equally well until Kevin's jump shot widened their lead to 28-14 with seven minutes 27 seconds remaining, but unfortunately after that they had to fast for scoring for almost the rest of the second quarter.

Pelita Jaya's defense slowly improved, along with their sharpness when launching attacks until finally two of Agassi's free throws made it level 28-28 and forced head coach Milos Pejic to ask for a time-out for Satria Muda with three minutes and six seconds remaining.

Agassi then gave Pelita Jaya the lead with a two-point throw, followed by two free throws by Reggie William Mononimbar to make the position 32-28 over Satria Muda.

A minute before the end of the second quarter, Satria Muda finally ended their scoring fast through Juan's tripoin, but they still ended the first half of the match 31-32 behind Pelita Jaya.

The tight game continued in the third quarter, marked by failure after failure of the flow of attacks that were carried out until Vincent's three-point play made Pelita Jaya lead 39-36, along with Arki having to withdraw to the bench due to foul trouble after already committing four fouls.

Pelita Jaya was able to take advantage of the absence of Arki to bombard the Satria Muda paint area when Vincent threw his second dunk and made it 44-41 with four minutes 52 seconds remaining.

However, Satria Muda answered it with three consecutive tripoins from Juan, Hardianus and Kevin to turn the lead 50-44 until the third quarter ended.

Reporting from Antara, Satria Muda seemed to find the situation unfavorable when Arki was fouled out when the final quarter had not even lasted one and a half minutes.

However, it actually motivated the Satria Muda players to present victory for their captain. A layup from Rizal Falconi took them away 62-49 over Pelita Jaya.

On the other hand, Pelita Jaya appeared under heavy weight and was only able to cut the gap to seven points at 57-64 with one minute remaining with an Agassi free throw.

This was answered by a three-point shot from Sandy Ibrahim Aziz followed by a Hardianus free throw to widen Satria Muda's lead 68-57 with 24 seconds remaining.

Reggie shot three points but when the bell to signal the end of the match rang, Satria Muda came out as the winner of the third game 68-60 as well as the 2021 IBL champion.