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In claiming a Final Four place at the expense of Pelita Jaya, Nuvo CLS Knights may have unintentionally sucked all the excitement out of the Bima Sakti Sports Center.

A basket in the dying seconds gave CLS a 62-60 victory and a 2-1 Indonesian Basketball League playoff series win against Pelita in Malang, East Java, on Tuesday. It advanced to take on three-time defending champion Satria Muda in the semifinals.

“This is a great victory, and we have to admit that we were lucky to win the match,” CLS manager Christopher Tanuwidjaja said.

Unfortunately for the home crowd, Bima Sakti could not repeat the drama as it crashed to a 70-49 loss against XL Aspac, which won the series 2-1 and advanced to face Garuda Flexi in the Final Four.

Surabaya-based CLS made a flying start to the game and led 25-9 after the first quarter. That momentum quickly faded, though, as Pelita chipped away at the lead and trailed just 36-25 at halftime.

Andi Poedjakesuma drained a 3-pointer just before the end of the third quarter to give Pelita its first lead at 49-48. It held that advantage and led 60-56 with two minutes remaining before Rachmad Febri Utomo made his telling contribution.

The forward sparked CLS with six consecutive points, a run capped by his game-winning layup with two seconds to go. Rachmad finished with 19 points for CLS, with Andrie Ekayana scoring 13 points and Agustinus Indrajaya adding 12.

Andi paced Pelita with 19 points and 14 rebounds.

“I was very disappointed. We really should have won this and went to the Final Four,” Pelita coach Rastafari Harongbala said.

Satria Muda coach Fictor Roring congratulated CLS and said he expected some tough games in their semifinal series.

“CLS is developing into one of the best clubs in the country,” Fictor said. “It has a young squad that looks promising. I think our semifinal games will be very interesting to watch. Yes, our record shows that we have a big chance to win, but anything can still happen, so we had better watch our step.”

The defending champions routed CLS 81-31 on Feb. 27 before winning 68-60 on May 30.

Aspac, meanwhile, was rarely troubled by its hosts. Riko Hartono led Aspac with a game-high 22 points, and Vinton Nolland Surawi had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Hendri Sudjana scored 12 points to lead Bima Sakti, and Dimas Aryo Dewanto and Yanuar Dwi Triasmoro each had 10.

Aspac and Garuda split their regular-season games, with Garuda winning 70-55 on Feb. 28 before losing the second game 86-74 on June 16.

IBL administrator Nandang Roekanda said the Satria Muda-CLS series will take place July 11-14 at Britama Arena in Jakarta, but the Aspac-Garuda site is yet to be determined.

Nandang said the league originally planned to have all Final Four matches in Jakarta before receiving an official request from Garuda on Monday to host its games in Bandung.

JG, Antara