DUBAI (United Arab Emirates) - Tabiat Basketball needed some luck to overcome Ulaanbaatar Xac, 78-76, to lock the no. 1 spot in Group A of the BCL Asia 2025, Monday at the Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Sports Hall.
The FIBA WASL 2025 runners-up rode the hot hands of Stedmon Lemon in erasing a nine-point deficit early to take the lead for good, but almost collapsed in the fourth no thanks to the Broncos' rally.
Fortunately for them, the BCL Asia-East champions could no longer find the mark from deep in the dying seconds and the Iranian side could only heave a sigh of relief after escaping with the narrow victory.
Coach Mehran Shahintab & Co. finished the Group Phase unbeaten in two games and will now wait for their foes in the Quarter-Finals on June 11, in which their Mongolian counterparts have also qualified into.
"If you check the statistics we were not good in turnovers, some free throws, and in making the three. But the players did their job, especially through good defense," said the champion bench tactician.
Lemon led Tabiat with 23 points, 16 of which he produced in just the game's opening period as he powered the comeback after seeing themselves trailing by nearly a decade, 20-11, with 2:53 on the clock.
The athletic winger knocked down back-to-back threes and then hit a tough fadeaway jumper to trim the gap to a point, 20-19, and scored another layup moments later to end the quarter with the game tied at 22-all.
The others then made sure not to waste his efforts, with Ivan Buva pushing their lead to its highest at 13 points, 45-32, following a perfect trip to the foul line with four minutes remaining in the second frame.
It didn't help Ulaanbaatar Xac that they lost their best player in Ian Miller with 3:02 remaining in the final chapter for incurring a pair of technical fouls although that hardly spelled the end for the gritty unit.
Staring at a 76-69 deficit, the Broncos managed to cut it to just four, 78-71, with 38.3 seconds to go after Barsbold Baatar Erdene and Jordy Tshimanga tried to pull themselves back into the game.
The opening seemed to have widened further when Dee Bost missed both his free throws with 21 seconds left but they couldn't capitalize on it, with veteran forward Tommy Bilguun missing from beyond the arc.
Tshimanga, though, did make it a one-possession game after hitting his foul shots, but that's about it as the one second left to play - and the ball going to Tabiat - were clearly not enough to at least tie it up anymore.
"I wanted to bring a lot of energy to get the rest of my team going. I think it worked. We had a pretty good second half, probably too many turnovers and missed a lot of open shots, but I think defense prevailed," Lemon said.
Buva finished with a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds, while Bost chipped in 13 points alongside 4 rebounds and 9 assists off the bench in the win. Arman Zangeneh added 5 points and 13 rebounds.
Miller, despite a premature exit, still finished as one of Ulaanbaatar Xac's top scorers with 16 points and 9 assists in the loss. Jordan Tolbert also produced the same amount of points together with 7 rebounds.
Tshimanga was the only other double-digit scorer for the Broncos with 13 points which he laced with 12 rebounds, with Azbayar Altangerel and Saruul-Erdene Enkhbaatar chipping in 8 points apiece.
FIBA