IRAN braces for a difficult game against Gilas Pilipinas after its close loss to New Zealand on Friday in the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Team Melli will only have one day to regroup after losing to the Tall Blacks, 93-91, in overtime at the Mall of Asia Arena. They fell into a tie got second place with New Zealand in Group E at 5-2 (win-loss) ahead of its game against Gilas Pilipinas.
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Sunday's game will be of utmost importance for the hosts, who badly need a victory as they start the second round of the qualifiers at the bottom half of Group E.
“I think it will be a very good game,” Iran coach Sotirious Alex Manalopolous said during the post-game press conference. “We have very good, experienced players. It’s going to be a tough game. I really have respect for them, with the players and the coach.”
Manalopolous noted the importance of Mohammad Amini for the next game against the Philippines. The recent NBA Summer League campaigner with the Boston Celtics had 16 points but only made 4-of-14 from the field, missing all five of his three-point shots.
“He is very important. He is very important to us. The only problem was he only came two days ago and he only had one practice. He needs more time to adjust to our game. And unfortunately, we didn’t have time for this,” Manalopolous said.
Manalopolous, who steered Iran to a bronze medal at the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, found solace in the fact that Iran was able to go toe-to-toe against New Zealand, which the Greek coach believes is one of the toughest teams in Group E.
Iran trailed by as many as 11 points but still managed to force overtime. Team Melli fell just short of forcing another extension when Alireza Sharifi missed a short stab in the final seconds.
“In my opinion, New Zealand is one of the top teams. We knew we have to play a tough game against them. The way we played, I’m proud of my players. We never quit. Even when we got to three times the lead, we came back.
“We tried to control the strengths of New Zealand which is obviously their offensive rebounding where we did not do a good job. No matter how hard we tried, they are one of the top teams I've seen on the offensive rebounding and they play a fast-paced tempo game,” Manalopolous said.
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