Iran Basketball Team Becomes FIBA Asia Cup Runner-Up
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran national basketball team lost to Australia 79-56 in the FIBA Asia Cup 2017 final match on Sunday.
Brad Newley had his best game of the tournament to lead Australia, finishing with 18 points, Daniel Kickert had 14, whilst Mitch Creek had another game in double digits with 12 points.
Hamed Haddadi had 18 points to lead Iran, and was joined by Behnam Yakhchali as the only other player in double figures with 10.
It was all Australia early, after their 12-2 opening in the first five minutes with Iran having no answers.
Iran, sparked by Haddadi, responded with a 9-0 run out of a timeout to get right back into the game, as the Boomers led 18-14 after the opening period in what started as a relatively low scoring affair.
Australia kept pressure up in second quarter, pulling away in the lead up to halftime with an 11-1 run as they got fast break opportunities from Iran's turnovers and saw success pulling Haddadi away from the basket.
Australia had a commanding 43-26 lead at the break, behind 8 points from Newley, fiba.com wrote.
It took two and a half minutes for the lead to balloon to 20 in the third period from which point it was relatively plain sailing.
A final surge from Iran saw them get the deficit down to 11 in the final minutes of the third, but it was as close as they would get with Australia dominating the start of the fourth to seal their fate.
