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IRI / KOR – Inspired Iran down Korea
TEHRAN (FIBA Asia U18 Championship for Men): Nothing seemed to go right for Iran right through the first half of their Group II game against Korea on Monday.
Coach Nebojsa Raicevic called upon his boys to “forget the result and play with your heart.”
And his boys responded in a sparkling manner and blew a confident Korea away to post an 85-79 victory which left the hosts in a strong position to make the semifinals after having finished seventh at Urumqi in 2006.
Emad Salmani with 22 points was the highest scorer for Iran alright, but the more important contributions came from Mehdi Shirjang, Mohammad Hasanzadeh and Farbod Farman.
Shirjang scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter – 14 in the second half – including all his three pointers for the game.
In fact, Iran scored four of their six three-pointers in the game in the final four minutes.
Hasanzadeh had nothing to show for his stay in the first half, but scored all his 12 points and collected 11 of his game-high 19 rebounds in the second half.
Farman had only four points in the first half, but added 13 more in the second.
Salmani’s consistent showing throughout the game, thus, got the necessary support. Salmani had five assists and three steals to add value to his scoring.
Iran went into the lead for the first time in the game, three minutes into the fourth quarter, after back-to-back three pointers from Shirjang and Salmani. Iran never trailed again.
“Hats off to the boys’ determination,” said Raicevic.
“I had nothing to do with this win. All the credit to the boys.”
“Tomorrow is another game. We need to win that first in order to keep our momentum,” he added.
Iran take on Philippines on Tuesday.
“There was very little we could against their inspired showing,” said Korea coach Hyosang Lee.
Jaehyun Park converted five three-pointers for a game high 23 points.
Seounghyun Lee led the rebounds for Iran collecting 12 boards to go with his 14 points.
Scores
Iran 85 (Emad Salmani 20, Mehdi Shirjang 19, Farbod Farman 17, Mohammad Hasanzadeh 12) bt Korea 79 (Jaehyun Park 23, Seounghyun Lee 14, Jongill Lim 12, Byeonghun Yoo 11). Quarterwise Scores: 14-22, 26-39, 55-61.
S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia
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