TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - Samad Nikkah Bahrami and his replacement from the bench Hamed Afagh shot 21 and 20 points respectively as defending champions Iran notched their third win in as many games beating Kuwait 94-46 in a Group B game on Saturday.

Iran, thus headed into the eight-final round with an unbeaten record. Kuwait, despite the defeat, qualified for the next round with a 1-2 win-loss record.

In the eight-final round, Iran and Kuwait along with Chinese Taipei the third qualifier from Group B are drawn alongside Korea, Japan and Philippines.

Samad who sat out the entire second and fourth quarters had a 57% record in shooting (8/14) including a 5/10 in long rangers.

Afagh who took to the court in Samad’s place, converted five of his 10 three-pointer attempts in a 7/12 field record.

“We are finally satisfied about our rhythm,” Iran coach Veselin Matic.

“We really struggled in the first two games. This game has put us in the right frame of things for the next round,” Matic added.

Samad fired in two three-pointers as Iran pulled away with a 10-0 run after five minutes in the first quarter to take control of the proceedings.

With Hamed EHadadi standing tall in defence and Mahdi Kamrani making some swift and scintillating plays Iran hit cruise mode right through.

EHadadi began to play his offensive game and Iran notched a 14-0 run early in the second quarter to take the game further away from Kuwait.

Iran coach Veselin Matic must have pleased with himself when Aren Davoudichegani came off the bench and scored seven points in that spree, which was capped by EHadadi’s three point play.

EHadadi collected eight rebounds to go with his eight points.

Kamrani effected two assists to add value to his 12 points.

With 10 points each, Rashed Alrabah and Mohammad Ashkanani shared the top score for for Kuwait, who turned the ball over 19 times against four steals.

Iran had 10 steals against their 12 turnovers.

S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia

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