BAGHDAD (Iraq) - Gorgan complete their quest of an undefeated season in the West Asia Super League (WASL) - West Asia with a 101-67 win over Al Naft at the Al SHaeb Hall on Wednesday, February 14.

Gorgan's victory keeps Al Naft winless. The Iranian side has now won all of their games by double-digits for an average margin of victory of 27.7 points per game.

The home side provided some challenge for Gorgan, even leading by as much as 7 points and at the end of the second quarter. It was not enough as the victors erupted, true to their dominant form, on the way to victory.

Game Heroes: Gorgan took the chance to rotate through their entire lineup as their lead built, but Norvel Pelle was the anchor for the team to maintain consistency. The 31-year-old finished the game with 14 points, 12 rebounds, and 2 assists.

Sina Vahedi had another big scoring game, leading the team with 19 early points and 4 three-pointers. Gorgan also got double-digit scoring performances from Mobin Sheikhi (17), Navid Rezaeifar (16), and Amihossein Azari (14).

STEP AHEAD Player of the Game: It was another double-double for Pelle who was awarded as the STEP AHEAD Player of the Game.

Turning Point: Al Naft took a 23-16 lead with just over 30 seconds left in the first quarter, their largest of the game. They wouldn't score a point for the next 7 minutes as Gorgan went on a 26-0 deciding blow.

Stats don't lie: Gorgan went with a balanced rotation as all 10 players logged at least 8 minutes and none played over 29 minutes in the game. Al Naft, in the meanwhile, saw two players play the full 40 with two other players missing out no more than 2 minutes per game.

This allowed Gorgan to be a bit more light on their feet en route to 17 fastbreak points compared to 9 by Al Naft.

They Said: "In my view, it was a very tough game… Our team, our great efforts, and our commitments owned the game... As far as you know in this group and the other group, Riyadi are undefeated. As far as in the Semi-Finals and Finals, the goal average determines who [gets homecourt advantage], and because of that, we did not want to lose this chance for our team and that is the reason that we played very hard." - Mostafa Hashemi, Head Coach, Gorgan

"It was a hard-fought game. We were missing one of our key players, Will Cherry, and Sina getting ejected, but we overcame that together as a team. We knew the task that we needed to handle and we got it done...  It feels good [to be undefeated], It's a mindset: "On to the next one". We celebrate now and then we move on. One down, many more to go... [The level of competition is] a good level. Each stage is getting harder and harder. I feel like we handled our first stage and now the second stage, we're going to have to just lock down as a team and continue to be focused on the task at hand and one game at a time." - Norvel Pelle, Gorgan

"This season wasn't very gracious to us since the beginning... WASL is a top-notch tournament and next season we will try to prepare better for it from the beginning...The tournament itself was very important for us as a team and for the players as well. The players really enjoyed the tournament and they benefited a lot from the tournament WASL. It gave us great experience and we are carrying this experience to the local league as well. A lot of young players who are playing more games now, that's really good for the team." - Khalid Deroish, Head Coach, Al Naft 

"This has been a tough year for us. We've had many injures from important players that we had last season. But all credit to Gorgan, they played a strong game and they shot really well, so congrats to them. As far as us, we're just figuring our team, being healthy and preparing for the Iraqi playoffs, and win a championship. That's our goal at the moment." - Antwaine Wiggins, Al Naft

FIBA