September 12-14
Iran’s national basketball team was swiftly wiped out of the global championships with only one win last week while the country’s volleyball team advanced to the next stage in the world championships with only a solitary loss.
It was a mirror image as the basketball team went 1-4 and the volleyball team went 4-1, including a victory over the United States.
The basketball team only managed to defeat Egypt while the volleyball team only lost to France.
The basketball team now goes home while the volleyball team advances to Round Two with matches this week against Australia on Wednesday, Argentina on Thursday, Poland on Saturday (tomorrow) and Serbia on Sunday.
Both global competitions began with 24 teams divided into four groups of six each. The top four teams in each group advanced. In basketball, Iran came in next to last; in volleyball it came in next to the top.
Here were Iran’s results in basketball’s World Cup being played in Spain:
Spain 90, Iran 60
Brazil 79, Iran 50
Serbia 83, Iran 70
France 81, Iran 76
Iran 88, Egypt 73
Iran improved with each successive game.
In that one Iranian win over Egypt, Hamed Haddadi had a monster game, scoring 23 points or one-fourth of the team’s scoring plus racking up 15 rebounds, his personal specialty.
In the loss to France, Iran looked stunning at the start and opened up a double-digit lead, but soon ran out of steam
Here are the results in volleyball with Iran’s score first in each set.
Italy: 25-16, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22
USA: 25-23, 25-19, 19-25, 18-25, 17-15
Belgium: 25-23, 25-15, 21-25, 25-20
France: 18-25, 25-14, 19-25, 25-27
Puerto Rico: 25-17, 25-22, 25-14
The volleyball World Championships are being played in Poland.
