T

he semifinals of the Indonesian Basketball League (ILB) will be held in the home cities of the two top-ranked teams, instead of the usual home-and-away format, with most teams suffering from a lack of sponsors to host the games.

The semifinals, scheduled for July 11-14 in a race-to-two system, will be hosted by first-placed Satria Muda Britama of Jakarta and second-placed Garuda Flexi of West Java, in Jakarta and Bandung respectively.

"The current top-ranked team, Satria Muda Britama, and second-ranked team, Garuda Flexi, are fully entitled to play in their home cities," IBL board chairman Ade Bella Harahap said Friday at a press conference in Jakarta.

Four-time champion Satria, winner of the last three consecutive IBL seasons, will face Nuvo CLS Knights of Surabaya, East Java.

Garuda, the runner-up in the last two seasons, meets XL Aspac of Jakarta, who won the IBL's inaugural season in 2003 and again in 2005.

"The teams are not yet ready for this *home-and-away* system now. We hope to start applying it next year," Ade said.

The final is slated for late July or early August.

IBL chairwoman Noviantika Nasution said this season's winner would be granted a spot in the Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) competition scheduled for next year.

The SEABA is a subzone of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia, consisting of countries from Southeast Asia.

Satria team manager Dwi Eriano said Nuvo, considered a much smaller team, had the skills to pose a great challenge.

"We will fight all-out in the first two games," he said.

Nuvo crushed Pelita Jaya Esia in the playoff round in Malang, East Java, last week.

Nuvo reached the final four in three IBL seasons, in 2003, 2004 and 2008.

"It's hard to gauge our chances of winning after our last two tight matches against Nuvo. What's most important is that we try to minimize our own errors," Dwi said.

He added six Satria players were currently not in the best of health.

"Youbel *Sondakh*, Anangga *Kurniawan*, Dodo *Christian Ronaldo Sitepu*, Welly *Situmorang*, Wenda *Wijaya* and Bonanza *Siregar* recently had fevers," he said.