Failing to reach the final, the Indonesian National Basketball Team aims for bronze

Viralterkini.id, Jakarta — The Indonesian men’s and women’s national basketball teams are now shifting their focus to winning the bronze medal at the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand.

Both teams had to bury their dreams of appearing in the final after both being eliminated in the semifinals.

However, the opportunity to bring home a medal remains open and is the main target in the final match of the tournament.

The Indonesian women’s national team was confirmed to have failed to advance to the final after losing to the Philippines. Competing at Nimibutr Stadium, Bangkok, Thursday (18/12/2025), the squad coached by Gitautas Kievinas surrendered with a score of 55–66.

In this match, Indonesia had difficulty developing their game from the start of the match and fell behind quite far in the first quarter.

The Indonesian men’s national team experienced a similar result, which also had to recognize the Philippines’ superiority in the semifinals. Playing at the same venue, Indonesia narrowly lost 68–71.

This defeat stopped the men’s team from pursuing the gold medal at the 2025 SEA Games, and forced them to go down to the match for third place.

The manager of the Indonesian Men’s National Team, Rivaldo Tandra, did not hide his disappointment with the result.

However, he emphasized that there was no reason for the team to fall into failure. According to him, all the players and coaching team have worked optimally throughout the tournament.

“We are of course very disappointed because we were not able to advance to the SEA Games final. There is no reason,” said Rivaldo.

He added that the team had carried out the program well and showed full effort, even though several crucial mistakes still occurred in the final moments of the match.

Rivaldo asked the players to immediately forget about the semifinal results and shift their focus to the next match.

Indonesia is scheduled to face Malaysia in the bronze medal match.

Malaysia itself advanced to the match after losing badly to Thailand with a score of 55–86 in the semifinals.

“The next match is against Malaysia, we must and will take that match,” stressed Rivaldo.

He is optimistic that the players’ experience and competitive mentality can be the difference. Rivaldo also reminded that in the previous edition, he succeeded in bringing the team to win a silver medal, so the opportunity to win bronze this time must be maximized.

“I believe the players and all staff deserve medals for the hard work, commitment and struggle they have shown throughout this tournament. We will give our best until the last match,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the women’s sector, the Manager of the Indonesian Women’s National Team, Handoyo, assessed that the defeat to the Philippines was due to mental factors.

He highlighted the players’ weak communication and concentration, especially at the start of the match which left Indonesia quite far behind.

“We lost because obviously, it goes back to mentality. In the first quarter alone, we easily had a deficit of 14 points, mainly because communication in defense was not good,” said Handoyo.

According to him, this situation affected the players’ confidence until the end of the match.

Even though they failed to reach the final, Handoyo emphasized that the women’s national team’s struggle was not over. There is still one match remaining to determine the medal tally.

He asked all the players to immediately get up and prepare mentally for the bronze match.

“The players have to get up because there is still one game left and there is still something to fight for. Hopefully they can bounce back,” he said.

Handoyo believes Indonesia’s opportunity to achieve victory remains wide open.

He assessed that in terms of quality, the strength of the Indonesian women’s national team was not below that of the other semifinalist countries.

The mental readiness factor is the main key that must be addressed before taking to the field in the final match.

“Opportunities still exist because in terms of strength our team is not below any team in the SEA Games. It just comes back to our mentality, whether we are ready to play or not,” stressed Handoyo.

He added that this message will continue to be emphasized to the players so that they realize that there is still one medal they can fight for.

With this situation, both the Indonesian men’s and women’s national teams are now at the same point: maintaining focus, correcting mistakes and performing optimally in the deciding match.

A bronze medal is a realistic target which is expected to be able to close Indonesia’s struggle in the 2025 Thailand SEA Games basketball branch with positive results.