CRO/IRI - Croatia hold off never-say-die Iran
ISTANBUL (World Championship)- Croatia bounced back from their opening-day mauling by the United States and defeated a resilient Iran 75-54. In Sunday's second Group B encounter at the Abdi Ipecki in Istanbul, the Croatians only led 12-11 when their impressive young center Ante Tomic buried a jump shot and Marko Tomas followed with a ...
ISTANBUL (World Championship)- Croatia bounced back from their opening-day mauling by the United States and defeated a resilient Iran 75-54.
In Sunday's second Group B encounter at the Abdi Ipekci in Istanbul, the Croatians only led 12-11 when their impressive young center Ante Tomic buried a jump shot and Marko Tomas followed with a three-pointer.
That sparked a 10-2 run that put the European team in front to stay.
Croatia went to half-time on top, 44-24, but Iran continued to battle.
Arsalan Kazemi, one of the big stories for Iran this summer after his outstanding freshman season at Rice in American college basketball, capped a run by dunking to cut the Asian side's deficit to 50-40 with 2:10 to go in the third quarter.
Hamed Ehadadi then had a chance to reduce the deficit even further but missed with a mid-range jump shot.
Tomas followed with a three-pointer as a part of a 14-4 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters that left Croatia in command the rest of the way.
Ehadadi finished with a game-high 27 points and led all players in the contest with nine rebounds and two blocks.
Croatia, who got 13 points apiece from Roko-Leni Ukic and Bojan Bogdanovic, face Slovenia on Monday. After the victory Bogdanovic visited with FIBATV.Com.
Iran will go after their first win on day three when they face Tunisia.
QUOTES:
Iran's Saman Veisi: "It was a hard game against a good team. But we know all the games in Turkey were going to be difficult. In every game we are going to try to play well and try to improve ourselves."
Croatia’s Marko Tomas: “We won easily. We played a very good defense in the first half but we relaxed in the third quarter and we cannot afford to do that tomorrow against Slovenia. We have to play with concentration from start to finish. But it was a good feeling to get our first win of the tournament.”
FIBA