Opportunities For The Indonesian Basketball National Team To The 2024 Olympics Qualification Are Getting Thin

The Indonesian basketball team lost again in the 2024 Olympics pre-qualification. (Photo via Antara/FIBA)

JAKARTA - The opportunity for the Indonesian Basketball National Team to qualify for the 2024 Olympics Qualification is running low. That was after the Garuda Squad lost to Saudi Arabia in the third match of pre-qualification, Monday, August 14, local time.

Competing at the Al Fayhaa Stadium Damskus Syria, Indonesia surrendered with a score of 72-86. Whereas in this match, Yudha Saputera and his friends had already won in the first quarter.

"This defeat is quite painful, because it is running low on our possibility to qualify for the 2024 Olympics Qualification. But our target is to still win the rest of the match," said the Indonesian Basketball National Team Manager, Jeremy Imanuel Santoso.

With this result, Indonesia is currently in fourth place in the standings with a total of 4 points from one win and two defeats. The number of points is the same as that collected by Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Kazakhstan.

While in second place is India with five points through two wins and one loss. Meanwhile, the leader of the Bahrain standings has six points from three wins, as reported by Antara.

Actually, Indonesia was able to provide resistance to the Saudi Arabian team in the first quarter by winning 23-20. The team's game was so good between Marques Bolden, Muhammad Arighi, Yudha Saputera, Reza Guntara and others who filled each other through defense, bait, two-point shots, to tripoin.

However, Indonesia's defense began to push since the second quarter until the match ended. Several mistakes were made by the Indonesian side who made a turnover or moved possession and were put to good use by Saudi Arabia.

Based on statistics, Indonesia's number of rebounds is also far behind, which is 31 compared to 52 by Saudi Arabia. Even Indonesia only made 6 offensive rebounds throughout the match. A total of 13 mistakes were also made by Indonesian players who produced points for Saudi Arabia.

Indonesia's shot accuracy is 37 percent, compared to Saudi Arabia which recorded 49 percent. Interestingly, Indonesia's three-point shot accuracy is higher at 39.3 percent compared to the accuracy of the two-point shot, namely 35.1 percent. Contributors of points outside the curvature include Yudha Saputera, Muhamad Arighi, and Juan Laurent Kokodiputra.

Marques Terrel Bolden became the highest scorer with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Yudha Prasetya, who appeared to consistently contribute 20 points to Indonesia, of which 12 points he did with a tripoin shot. Yudha also appeared productive as a feeder with a record of 9 assists, and even recorded 5 rebounds for 37 minutes 41 seconds.

Muhamad Arighi contributed 11 points through three tripoin shots and two free throws. However, Arighi did not record any other contributions such as rebounds, assists, blocks, or steals despite playing for 33 minutes 50 seconds.

Furthermore, Indonesia has two last matches left in the 2024 Olympics pre-qualification event, namely against Bahrain on Wednesday, August 16, and against Syria, the day after.