IRI – Iran’s Kazemi lifts Rice to upset of SMU in Conference USA Tournament

EL PASO (NCAA) - Arsalan Kazemi spent his summer of 2010 making plenty of headlines as the rising star of Iran’s national team at the FIBA World Championship.

The 20-year-old forward enjoyed one of his finest hours as a college basketball player on Wednesday night by leading the Rice Owls to a 58-57 upset of Southern Methodist University in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament.

Kazemi’s Owls went into the game with 13 wins and 17 defeats but surprised SMU (17-14) as the Iranian poured in 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Rice will now face second-seed Tulsa on Thursday night.

“I’m really happy because this is my first experience to get to the second round of the tournament,” Kazemi said.

“We were 0-0 before this game and the regular season was over so we talked to each other and decided to go out and play hard and get this win.”

Just two weeks ago, Kazemi was almost the hero when his two free-throws forced overtime against SMU in the regular season but the Mustangs prevailed in the extra period.

Kazemi, who averaged 12 points and 7.4 rebounds per game for Iran last summer in Istanbul, has been on quite a ride of late.

Earlier this week, he was named to the 2010-11 All-Conference USA Second Team.

Next month, Kazemi, the first Iranian-born student-athlete to play NCAA Division I basketball, will receive the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's Most Courageous Award during the USBWA's Breakfast of Celebration.

He will be honored when the breakfast is held April 1 in the lead-up to the NCAA Final Four in Houston.

To reach the NCAA Tournament, Rice would need to win the Conference USA Tournament.

FIBA