IRN - Iran win WABA Championship, punch ticket to Wuhan

DUHOK (WABA Championship/FIBA Asia Championship) - West Asian giants Iran earned the right to defend their crown at the FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China, later this year by winning the WABA Championship in Duhok, Iraq.

Jordan, bronze medalists behind Iran at the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship in Tianjin, and Syria also qualified for the FIBA Asia Championship.

Lebanon, as champions of the 3rd FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup last year, had already qualified automatically for Wuhan, thus completing the quartet of WABA representation.

Iran began their campaign in Duhok with a hard-fought 72-70 win over Jordan, but improved thereafter to emerge triumphant.

Their 83-62 win against Syria clinched their ticket to Wuhan.

A day later, Veselin Matic’s charges went about their business without much ado in beating Iraq 93-52 to complete a 3-0 wrap up of their engagements.

Jordan, who lost to Iran on the opening day, took a decisive step towards qualification beating Iraq 79-77 in a nerve-wracking game.

Playing under Tab Baldwin – who took over the team only a couple of days before the event – rounded off their outings beating Syria 92-75 and took the second place behind Iran.

Syria too played under a new coach – Mensur Bajramovic. But with the core of the National Team drawn from Al Jala’a, whom Bajramovic coached to Syrian D1 League triumph this year, there was no trouble for Syria to qualify.

They beat Iraq 92-85 on the opening day, and with the latter losing their other two games, Syria qualified despite failing to add to that opening victory.

FIBA Asia