China lose to Iran at Asian basketball championship

China’s Liu Xiaoyu (L) lays up against Iran’s Rouzbeh Arghavan during the men’s Asian basketball championship in Manila on August 3, 2013. Iran won 70-51.

Manila, Aug 3 (IANS) Defending champions China lost their second match at the 27th Asian basketball championships 51-70 against Iran here Saturday but still qualified for the second round.

Hamed Haddadi scored nine of his game-high 15 points in the second quarter to hand Iran a 17-point lead by halftime. When China cut the lead to 13 points after the third quarter, Haddadi scored two three pointers and one free-throw to help Iran pull away again, reports Xinhua.

Iran grabbed 35 rebounds, including 16 offensive rebounds, while China had only 29. Haddadi and Oshin Sahakian snatched seven rebounds apiece.

Wang Shipeng led China with 11 points and was the only Chinese player who reached double digits in scoring. He made all his three three-point attempts in the first quarter but missed five thereafter.

Samad NIkkhah Bahrain also had 10 points and eight assists for Iran, who topped Group C with three wins.

South Korea finished second ahead of China, whose only victory came in Friday’s match against Malaysia.