Iran win with Yakhchali beating Baba in scoring duel; Boomers, China also victorious

TEHRAN (Iran) & MANAMA (Bahrain) & ASTANA (Kazakhstan) - Iran, Australia, and China start the Second Round of the Asian Qualifiers with solid wins all around.

Iran fended off a determined Japan side to get a win on their home court, 79-68.

The game turned into a shootout between the two stars off the team, Behnam Yakhchali and Yudai Baba. In the end, Yakhchali both won the game and the individual matchup by scoring 30 points to Baba’s 27.

Japan fell behind with a slow start in the second quarter and even though they were able to make a solid fourth quarter push, it was not enough. Hamed Haddadi also had a big game with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists, while Arsalan Kazemi added 12 points and 17 rebounds.

The Boomers continue to dominate in the Asian Qualifiers, claiming a third straight win by at least 20 points over Bahrain, 104-50.

 

Australia left no room for chance and immediately claimed a commanding lead right from the first quarter. From there, they were able to cruise along the rest of the way to yet another massive win.

All players scored in this game for Australia with 4 in double digits led by Dejan Vasiljevic (22 points), Angus Brandt (17 points), and Luke Travers (17 points).

China engaged in a closely competed game against Kazakhstan, coming away with a 68-58 win.

Kazakhstan had made an frantic run in the second half to excite their fans, cutting the lead down from as much as 19 points to only 5 points. In the end, however, China’s size and speed were too much for Kazakhstan to overcome.

Turning points

IRI vs JPN: Japan nearly went scoreless for the entire second quarter, scoring their first basket with 2:29 minutes left in the half, despite going toe-to-toe with the home team for the entire first quarter. That’s is a tough hurdle to overcome, especially against a team like Iran. Japan tried to make their way back in the game, but the gap had already become too wide.

BRN vs AUS: Australia controlled the game early on, but a long, long range three-pointer by Vasiljevic (one of his 6 triples) late in the first quarter certainly made it even more clear that the Boomers were out for the kill this game.

KAZ vs CHN: China’s big lead was nearly gone heading into the final quarter and the fans in Asatana were getting a bit rowdy. They put their heads down and went to work in the post, using their size with Wang Zhelin and Zhou Qi to come away with the win in the final 10 minutes, with the defining moment being Rustam Muzagaliyev’s desperation unsportsmanlike foul on Zhou Qi with just less than 3 minutes to go.

It was just clear that there was not going to be an answer in the paint in these closing minutes.

Game Heroes

IRI vs JPN: When Behnam Yakhchali gets into his groove, it’s a beauty to watch. The sweet stroking guard could barely miss, ending with 30 points on 9-14 shooting and 5 threes.

BRN vs AUS: It was nearly a perfect Boomers debut for Luke Travers who had 17 points on 6-6 shooting from the field, 4-4 from the charity stripe, making his only three-point shot attempt, to go with 9 rebounds and 4 assists. The only “flaw” in his first game box score was one turnover.

KAZ vs CHN: Saying that Zhou Qi is unstoppable is nothing new. The star center led the game in scoring with 19 points while also logging 11 rebounds and 3 blocks. Zhou did even get that many attempts on the floor (4-8) and instead got the majority of his points from the charity stripe (11-18).

Stats don’t lie

IRI vs JPN: With the way they play, Japan has the potential to beat any team if they can connect on their long range shots. They only shot 27.5 percent in this game, coming off of 40 attempts from beyond the arc.

BRN vs AUS: Australia missed only 8 of their attempts from two-point range, good for 77.8 percent. Overall, they shot60.6 percent from the floor. Bahrain didn’t help themselves by shooting only 25.4 percent.

CHN vs KAZ: It’s tough to hang around with China when you are by nature a physical defending team as they will keep on drawing fouls. That was the case in Astana as Kazakhstan fouled 33 times, resulting in a massive amount of 40 free-throw attempts for China.
Even though China made only 70 percent of those free-throws, it was more than enough for the win. 

Bottom Line:

The wins claimed by China and Iran now makes it three teams in Group F that have identical 5-2 records including Kazakhstan. We all knew coming in that the race to claim World Cup tickets in Group F would be intense and that will certainly be the case - even if Australia have separated themselves from the pack, now with 7 straight wins in the Qualifiers.

FIBA