ZOUK MIKAEL (Lebanon) - Tabiat Basketball showed poise in crunch time to turn back Al Difaa Al Jawi SC, 92-88, to go 2-0 in the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-West Asia League, Wednesday night at the Nouhad Nawfal Stadium.
The reigning Iran Basketball League champions leaned on the troika of Ivan Buva, Sina Vahedi, and Rasoul Mozafari in the endgame to erase an 84-86 deficit with 1:43 to play en route to coming out triumphant from another down-the-wire affair after escaping the more favored Sagesse by just a point barely 24 hours ago.
After Thursday's rest day, the crew of Coach Mehran Shahintab will look to extend their winning streak to three when they take on reigning WASL and BCL Asia kings Al Riyadi on Friday night at 22:00 local time.
Game heroes: Vahedi top-scored for Tabiat with a game-high 23 points on a 47-percent clip from the floor, highlighted by a quarter of three-pointers, alongside 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.
Buva, meanwhile, flirted with a triple-double as he finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists, once again delivering hugely down the stretch like what he did to help themselves beat the Green Castle, 88-87.
Fellow reinforcement Stedmon Lemon was as versatile as well, coming through with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists off the bench. Arman Zangeneh registered his own double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds
Turning point: Buva put Tabiat ahead for good when they saw themselves trailing, first scoring from near the paint before splitting his shots from the charity stripe for the 87-86 advantage with 59.3 seconds remaining.
The locals would take care of matters afterward, with Mozafari intercepting the ball from Darius Johnson-Odom to start the break which Vahedi ended with a lay-up to push their lead to 89-86 with 30.9 seconds to go. A split by Vahedi - off a Johnson-Odom foul - just moments later made it a two-possession ball game.
Ramon Galloway attempted to spark one last rally for Al Difaa Al Jawi when he trimmed the gap to 90-88 following a perfect trip to the foul line, but time unfortunately was no longer on their side.
Mozafari was then fouled in a bid to freeze the clock, but he iced the game by making both of his free throws with 2.5 seconds left to play, and the crew would heave a sigh of relief as the final buzzer sounded.
Stats don't lie: Odom-Johnson losing the ball to Mozafari was a microcosm of their struggles as turnovers proved to be the difference, with the Iraqi side committing 15 of which - eight more than what Tabiat had.
They said: "First of all, I have to say congratultions to the Iraq team. They played very physically all game and made it a tough game for us. We were a little bit tired because we had a tough game last night. But congratulations to the players and coaches." - Sina Vahedi, Tabiat Basketball
"When we come to the game, we try to fight. We try to take the win whoever the team is playing against us. But this is a good experience for us - to improve ourselves, to see our mistakes so we can work on it. We will really try to win in the next two games, and we will try hard for it." - Ihab Al-Zuhairi, Al Difaa Al Jawi SC
FIBA