Iran seeks revenge vs Jordan

Mahdi Kamrany vividly remembers Iran’s bitter defeat to Jordan in the quarterfinals of the previous Asian championship.

The Iranians did not get a chance to get even after setting up a quarterfinal date with the Jordanians following a methodical 85-53 demolition of Kazakhstan yesterday in the 27th Fiba Asia Championship at Mall of Asia Arena.

“It was a painful loss. We can avoid it from happening again if we play smart,” said the 5-foot-10 Kamrany on his way to the dugout.

Running second in the statistical race, Hamed Hadadi banged in 16 points and shooting guard Hamed Afagh added 15 to pace the Iranians, who used a strong second-quarter windup that told heavily on the Kazakhs.

With the victory, the two-time Asian champions topped Group F and drew the Jordanians, who placed fourth in Group E, as their  quarterfinal foe tomorrow.

Jordan booted out Japan earlier with a 65-56 victory behind the stellar performances of naturalized forward Jimmy Baxter and stocky slotman Mohammad Hussein.

JR Sakuragi, Japan’s naturalized center, was a big disappointment after finishing with five points on 1 of 10 shooting in almost 34 minutes.

China, with Yi Jianliang finally playing after missing two games due to injuries, whipped Bahrain, 88-66, to finish third in Group F at 3-2 behind South Korea, which is expected to end up second behind Iran at 4-1 with a win over lightweight India in the day’s final match last night.

Led by Osama Daghles, Zaid Abbas and naturalized slasher Rasheim Wright, the Jordanians  upset  the Iranians in  the 2011 Fiba Asia in Wuhan, China.

They eventually lost the gold medal match by a point to China, which went on to secure the lone continental spot to the 2012 London Olympics.

“We can beat any team with our defense. We just have to stay focused in the knockout stages,” said Kamrany.

The Iranians, who represented Asia in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, hammered the Kazakhs inside the paint and were up by 34 points after a ferocious 17-6 charge late in the third period.

“Jordan is now a different team. But we know each other so we’ll be ready,” said Iran’s Slovenian coach Mehmed Becirovic.

Nursing minor injuries, naturalized guard Jerri Jonson, power forward Mikhail Yevstigneyev and Konstantin Dvirnyy were benched by Kazakhstan coach Matteo Boniciolli, who obviously  wanted them fresh in the quarterfinals.

As No. 4 in Group F, the Kazakhs will tackle in the quarterfinals the Group E topnotcher which is expected to be Gilas Pilipinas. The Filipinos, heavily favored to beat Hong Kong in their final game at presstime, grabbed top spot in their group under the quotient system after Qatar downed Chinese Taipei, 71-68, also yesterday.