TEHRAN (Iran) – Shahrdari Gorgan of Iran sent some strong warning signals to the rest of the fray with a comfortable, but compact 89-73 win over debutants BC Astana of Kazakhstan in the 2025-26 FIBA WASL-West Asia League on Thursday night.
The Iranian outfit, a twice former WASL-West Asia runners-up thus earned their second win from as many games and are now locked for the top place in the five-team round-robin with reigning three-time champions Al Riyadi Beirut.
Jordan Hamilton led the charge for the Iranian champions for the second game on the trot with 25 points one rebound shy of a double-double.
Parrish Petty and Mobin Sheiki lent support with 14 points each.
Having endured oscillating fortunes in the first two periods of a hitherto even-keeled encounter, Gorgan closed the first half strong.
Meisam Mirzaei nudged Gorgan ahead and Petty reeled in a long-ranger to swell that lead further as the teams headed into the break. Gorgan went into the locker-room with that lead and never fell back when they returned to action for the second half.
“We needed to tighten the screws a little in the second half,” said Gorgan coach Saleh Makhdoomi.
“We began to share the ball better and we were focussed to thank our fans who travelled long with this win,” he added.
Mohammed Hassanzadeh pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds for
Adas Juskevicius was the leader of Astana’s rally with 25 points.
The Lithuanian rued the lack of sufficient effort on the defense.
“I think we were not bad in our offense. But couldn’t stop their pick-and-roll offense. You cannot expect any better result when you fail defensively,” he said.
Askar Maydekin contributed 15 points, while Eric Day added a dozen points while dishing out 8 assists for Astana.
Astana after being slotted automatically in the Final 8 in the first three seasons are playing their debut season in the WASL-West Asia League. The Kazakh outfit will play their first ever WASL game in front of home fans when they host Lebanese powerhouse Sagesse the coming Wednesday.
Gorgan will stay at home to welcome Syria’s Al Wahda on Thursday next.
FIBA