JAKARTA (Indonesia) - Powered by the cheers of the crowd at Istora Senayan, Indonesia claimed an important win over Saudi Arabia to start their Asia Cup 2022 campaign, 80-54.

The victory is their biggest win at home in the Asia Cup. It also spells revenge for Indonesia as they had just lost to this same Saudi Arabia team at this same venue just a little over 10 days ago in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers.

Marques Bolden made his Asia Cup debut in spectacular fashion, finishing with 32 points, 16 rebounds, and 6 blocks for a Efficiency rating of 48. Indonesia also had three-players score in double-digits with Abraham Damar Grahita (13 points), Brandon Jawato (10 points), and Andakara Prastawa Dhyaksa (10 points). Prastawa also added 9 assists and 3 steals to his name in this game.

Saudi Arabia were far from their form in the recent matchup between the two teams, with Mohammed Almarwani being the only player to score in double-digits with 15 points.

Turning point

The turning point was the starting point as Marques Bolden went right to work from the start of the game. He scored the first 8 points for Indonesia which went unanswered, highlighted by monster dunks and monster blocks. With the way the game started, both the Indonesia national team and the hometown crowd were flooded with energy, making it difficult for Saudi Arabia to properly mount a comeback.

Game hero

It would be tough to say anyone else outside of Marques Bolden was the hero of this game for Indonesia. Whether it was the way he dominated on the offensive end with 14-19 shooting from the field or on the defensive end, Bolden was always all over the place.

Stats don't lie

Saudi Arabia didn’t exactly shoot the lights out (35.1 percent) in their recent win over Indonesia, so shooting only 29.2 percent in this game wasn’t good, but wasn’t entirely the biggest fact. It was more likely the fact that Indonesia outrebounded Saudi Arabia in this game 45-34, compared to being outrebounded 47-55 last time around.

They said:

“We tried to come back to the game. We played well in couple minutes, but it wasn’t enough. This is a good lesson for us for the next game, and we’ll collect our mistakes and learn from them.” - Ayoub Alhawsawi, Saudi Arabia

“I think pressure is always there, it’s how we channel into something that we can make as a positivity. As a team, and we see from the crowd, from the energy of the guys, that’s what we want to continue having throughout FIBA Asia Cup. I hope all of the basketball fans will even show up more after this game, especially against Jordan and Australia.” - Jeremy Manuel, Indonesia Team Manager

"The best is yet to come, jobs not finished."
- Jeremy Manuel, Indonesia Team Manager

“There is a sense of pressure playing at home. Of course, we want to win at home for our country. Throughout the years, I feel like we’ve always been the underdog teams, so we use that pressure more as motivation to prove other countries, to prove everybody, that doesn’t believe that we’re a country to compete against.” Arki Wisnu, Indonesia

"Yeah there’s pressure, but we look forward to that pressure and challenge to play our best and represent the country to our best capabilities."

 FIBA