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Given the talent level he was working with, Fictor Roring saw one big positive after Satria Muda Britama failed to make the Asean Basketball League playoffs.

“You have to praise the team for playing with a lot of heart,” Satria Muda’s director for basketball operations said, following his team’s 77-74 overtime loss to the Philippine Patriots on the final day of the ABL regular season on Saturday.

“That’s one thing we proved. People were saying we were out of the running at one point during the season, but we never gave up. We fought until the end.”

Satria Muda had entered the ABL’s second season as one of the top contenders for the title. It was a forecast the team had earned almost by default — nobody dare bet against Indonesia’s most accomplished basketball team, especially after having reached the ABL finals the previous year.

But the team didn’t realize how much a new ruling in the domestic league would affect its play in the ABL until the season got underway.

With the National Basketball League declaring that none of its clubs could field the same lineups for another competition, Satria Muda found itself in a dilemma picking which players would suit up for different tournaments.

“When the NBL made the announcement, it was too close to the opening of the ABL. We didn’t really have time to form the right team,” Fictor said.

“We wanted to recruit better players, but the next thing we knew the ABL was about to start,” he added.

Talk was rife that Satria Muda, which has won the NBL title five straight times, had wanted to prioritize the domestic competition over the ABL, after having selected most of its strong local players for the NBL.

But Fictor said that wasn’t really the case. “We figured that since we had imports playing in the ABL, if we surrounded them with a decent enough local supporting cast the team would still be competitive.

“But again, if we were given enough time to form the team for the ABL, I really believe we would have better results.”

Satria Muda’s late push for a semifinal berth might lend credence to Fictor’s theory.

Having struggled with a 2-8 record and mired in the cellar in December, Satria Muda strung together four straight victories, winning by an average margin of 13.5 points, to keep its hopes alive for the postseason.

The comeback drive ended abruptly when, needing one more win to qualify for the semifinals, Satria Muda lost to the Patriots at Jakarta’s BritAma Arena on Saturday and settled for fifth place in the six-team league.

Despite being eliminated, coach Ocky Tamtelahitu wasn’t one to feel dejected.

“We gave it our all. Obviously this wasn’t the best team in terms of talent, but you can’t question the boys’ desire to win,” he said.

It was never the team’s heart that was in question, however — it was more of the players’ legs.

Ocky’s starters again played heavy minutes, with all five logging at least 37 minutes.

It was an approach Ocky had resorted to often during the season, hoping to maximize the talent of his best players while making up for a thin bench.

“When I got here, the first thing my fellow Filipino teammates advised me was to do regular running exercises. I eventually found out what that was for,” said Satria Muda forward Marlon Legaspi, who played all but one minute in Saturday’s game.

The heavy playing time took a toll on the starters in the last game, with American reinforcement Antoine Broxsie suffering leg cramps late in regulation and during overtime and Legaspi missing from the three-point line after connecting four times.

“Everybody was just exhausted, but when you play in front of your fans you can’t show that. You have to play on,” Legaspi said.

The next ABL season is due to start much later, in January 2012, to give way to the Southeast Asian Games in November.

Ocky said that would give Satria Muda enough time to field a much better squad.