TEHRAN (Iran) - ZobAhan pulled away late to beat Al Naft, 95-83, to reach the WASL-West Asia Semi-Finals, Wednesday night at the Azadi Basketball Hall in Tehran.

Sajjad Mashayekhi and Arsalan Kazemi bannered the home team's 11-0 finishing kick that took the wind out of the visitors' sails, making sure to close it out strong as they applied the lessons from that Game 2 defeat exactly a week ago in Baghdad.

They win the series 2-1 to earn the right to face Gorgan in the semis. The long-time Iranian foes will start their WASL rivalry next Thursday.

Game heroes: Kazemi led the way with 28 points and 13 rebounds en route to bagging home STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors.

Mashayekhi produced 22 points and 6 assists. Blaz Mesicek supplied 13 points, spiked by a pair of triples, as he continues to prove his worth.

Farid Aslani Abadi made 11 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals, while Arman Zangeneh chimed in 10 markers and 15 boards with 2 blocks as all five starters of Coach Farzad Kouhian finished in double figures in the victory.

Turning point: ZobAhan were clinging to a one-point lead heading into the final three minutes until Mashayekhi found Kazemi for a jumper to make it an 86-83 edge, and that sparked what would be the closing run towards the triumph.

Stats don't lie: ZobAhan shot 50-percent from the field thanks to their 20 assists, and dominated the battle of the boards, 43-29.

They said: "We're gonna play Gorgan, obviously these are two teams who know each other very well and played against each other in the Finals last year in ISL and I think it's gonna be a great match, and it's gonna be a great game for the fans ... I'm really excited. It's always fun to play against Mohammad Jamshidi, Behnam [Yakhchali], Perry Petty, like we're all close friends, we know each other's games, it's gonna be really fun to play against those guys." - Arsalan Kazemi, ZobAhan

"First I wanna give congratulations to ZobAhan, I think they played a great game. The tradition here in Iran is beautiful, you could tell the guys, the Iranian players are really good. I wanna give them their props. But to my players, I'm just proud. We're a small team from Baghdad. To begin West Asia, I don't think many people have good expectations for us but you know, you see our games against Al Riyadi, Gorgan who's a big team, ZobAhan, we played good against these teams with the chance to win. So much congratulations to ZobAhan but I'm very proud of my guys. Hopefully we can go back to Iraq and win the IPL." - Edgar Sosa, Al Naft

FIBA