Petrochimi outclass Mono Vampire, stay alive for Group A top spot

CHENZHOU (FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017) - Mono Vampire Thailand found themselves purely outclassed by a bigger and deeper Petrochimi Iran team on Day 3, 111-60.

The result meant that Petrochimi may still end up as Group A's top team should they topple Chooks-To-Go Philippines tomorrow. Mono Vampire gave the Iranians a strong challenge in the first quarter, but the ASEAN side just could not sustain their momentum, falling behind by 10 at the half and completely losing control in the last two periods.

Petrochimi's size and ball movement were just hard to match. The Iranians outrebounded Mono Vampire, 48-24, and utilized far superior playmaking to gain more assists, 26-13. It also did not help that the Thais turned the ball over way too many times - 25 to be exact - which let to 36 points off turnovers for Petrochimi.

Willie Warren led five Petrochmi players in double-figure scoring with 20 points, while Navid Niktash and Sajjad Mashayekhi each dropped 16 points. Young big man Meysam Mirzaei also turned a lot of heads by notching 14 points, 15 rebounds and 3 steals. As for Mono Vampire, they drew a combined 23 points from Mike Singletary and Sorot Sunthonsiri but but got next to nothing from Jason Brickman, who had only 3 points in under 17 minutes of action.

FIBA