Iran crushes S. Africa in opener of men´s wheelchair basketball

Source: Xinhua | 09-07-2008 13:39

BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran beat South Africa 73-62 in the opener of the men's wheelchair basketball in the National Indoor Stadium Sunday at the Beijing Paralympics.

Iran crushes S. Africa in opener of men's wheelchair basketball.[Xinhua]

Alireza Ahmadi scored 24 points to lead Iran past South Africa for an easy win. Other Iranian players reaching double digit points were Vahid Gholam Azad, 18 points, Morteza Gharibloo, 14, and Adel Torfi Meneshidi, 12.

Iran did obviously a better job in offense and also defense in the first match of preliminaries, limiting South African double-digit scorers to two, Richard Nortje and Nicholas Taylor in 25, 24 apiece.

The 11 points deficit disappointed South African team. "It's really disappointing. We put everything into this game. This was our must-win game that we identified. We've got some really hard games coming up and we thought if there was a team we could beat, we could beat Iran," said South African coach Vivian Sierra.