Fiba Asia C’ships shocker: Iran downs China
CHINA’S Zhu Fangyu (partly hidden) gets fouled on the way to the basket by Iran center Hamed Hadadi. FRANCIS T. J. OCHOA
THIS could spell bad news for Gilas Pilipinas.
Iran had too much firepower China wasn’t able to restrain for an emphatic 70-51 demolition of the defending Asian champion last night in the 27th Fiba Asia Championship at Mall of Asia Arena.
Behind the stellar performances of NBA veteran Hamed Hadadi and swingman Oshin Sahakian, the Iranians turned an expected thriller to a grisly rout to top Group C unbeaten after three games.
The 2007 and 2009 champions advanced to the second round of the group stages where they will face the top three performers from Group D headed by Kazakhstan.
“We played a very good game, but still not good for 40 minutes,” said Iran’s Slovenian coach Mehmed Becirovic after the Iranians committed 14 turnovers. “But we’ll try to improve on our mistakes.”
China’s crushing defeat was reminiscent of its championship debacle to Iran in 2009 held on Chinese territory in Tianjin.
Power forward Yi Jianlian was benched by China coach Panagiotis Giannakis to keep him healthy in time for the quarterfinals. With their 7-foot leader recuperating from a hamstring injury and a pulled groin, the Chinese leaned on the sniping of Wang Shipeng, the only player on his team with a double-digit output of 11 points.
“He (Yi) has a problem coming here, we want him healthy in the knockout games,” said Giannakis.
China (1-2) will move to the next phase carrying its two losses with the specter of meeting the Philippines in the quarterfinals growing by the day. With the way China has been performing, the 2011 champions could either end up third or fourth in their group going into the quarters.
Gilas is eyeing the top spot in the other group that could set up a possible showdown with either China or Kazakhstan in the knockout stages.
Starting out strong, Iran raced to an early 9-0 lead on three free throws by Bahrami after Giannakis was slapped a technical for complaining.
