Dibuat oleh Admin. Pada 21 January 2025 - 16:12
Satria Muda Pertamina continued their good trend this season by sweeping two matches at their home ground, Britama Arena. Bagir et al. successfully defeated two teams from Central Java who were their guests last week. The first was Kesatria Bengawan Solo (KBS), a team that has so far been known as the new dark horse in the Indonesian basketball league. Last season, Efri Meldi's team even managed to win 3-2 on aggregate from their five meetings with Satria Muda.
The match went according to predictions, exciting and tight. Taking turns to win also became a unique color in this match. SMP itself actually played solidly, but the poor free throws from their squad almost made them slip. Luckily, the team from Kelapa Gading had a player of Abraham Damar Grahita's class. The man from Bangka who that day was also included in the elite ranks of 2000 points managed to make the difference. Two three-pointers in the remaining 3 minutes of the last quarter finally managed to bring SM out with an 80-74 victory.
Next, SM Pertamina did not encounter any significant obstacles in hosting Satya Wacana (SWS), the improved shooting percentage and Randy Bell, Bagir and Nash who were sharp were the keys to SM's victory over the Salatiga city team. Although they had to chase, the calmness of the SM players allowed them to win absolutely with a score of 90-56.
"We are certainly grateful because we were able to win this home game and in terms of their game they are also slowly starting to understand each other. One thing for sure, I always remind them to continue playing at the Satria Muda level, a high level. Because I want us to have a good position in the end so that we have a home advantage in the playoffs later. That's why I told them to consider all matches as finals," said SM head coach Youbel Sondakh after the match against SWS.
Youbel also said that one thing that should be appreciated from his squad is that this time they were quicker to fix the shortcomings in the previous match. This of course refers to their poor free throw percentage in the match against KBS.
"Of course we really evaluated it after the match against KBS, imagine out of 26 opportunities only 9 went in. But I like their reaction today, they realized their shortcomings and the training finally proved it today out of 15 they went in 13 and reached a percentage of 86 percent. A quick reaction as I expected from them and hopefully this will continue throughout this season," he concluded.
With three wins from three matches, SM Pertamina is comfortable in second place in the standings. Next they will be the host again when they host Hangtuah and Borneo on January 31 and February 1.
