IRI - Super League comes to an end with all ups and downs, Mahram win title

TEHRAN (Iranian Super League) - Tony Madison scored 24 points and grabbed 8 rebounds as Mahram clinched their first ever championship title Wednesday in the Iranian Super League with a 106-93 win over Saba Battery, the Asian title-holder.

It was the sauce-makers' second win in a row after they downed Saba 101-93 on Monday.

The defending champion Saba Battery played the first game without the services of French point-guard Makan Dioumassi who was suffering from an injury.

He played 40 minutes in his team's second challenge.

Mahram's Samad Bahrami scored 20 points but had to leave the court when he received his second technical.

Art Long had left the game earlier when he continued his aggressive play and picked up his second technical foul.

It came as the coaches of both teams, the bench players and even the fans seemed to be frustrated with the mistakes of referees and their inconsistency in calling or not making calls when they should have, in the last two final games.

"There were several major reasons that stopped us from repeating the championship this season," Saba's coach, Mehran Shahintab said, "we lost one of our key players, Aidin Bahrami who passed away in a car crash before the play-offs; also we had to play 3 or 4 games in a week in the play-offs and finals due to the squeezed schedule, which made our players too exhausted."

Saba Battery suffered from another blow during the play-offs when there were changes going to happen inside the managerial board.

Meantime, in Isfahan, Kaveh handed Zob Ahan their second loss 74-52 in the 3rd-place games. Zob Ahan had been defeated 103-94 in the first game earlier this week.

IRANIAN SUPER LEAGUE 2007-08 FINAL RANKINGS
1- MAHRAM
2- SABA BATTERY
3- KAVEH
4- ZOB AHAN

Hooman Bagheri
FIBA Official Correspondent in Iran