Hot Iran purges ghost of Wuhan, rips Jordan

MANILA, Philippines - For Iran and its boisterous flag-waiving followers, there’s no better way to celebrate Eid’l Fitr in Manila than to pull off this big vengeful triumph over Jordan.

The Iranians had their mini-festival on the playing court and in the stands in this Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan as the Iranian quintet got back at Jordan, 94-50, and thus secured the first berth in the Final Four of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City last night.

Stunned by Jordan in their quarterfinals showdown in Wuhan in 2011, Iran rewrote history, putting a new chapter in their rivalry with this businesslike victory.

The Iranians were ruthless in fashioning out this wire-to-wire win that saw them lead bv 20 points (31-11) in the first quarter, 25 (53-28) at the half, 38 (74-36) at the end of the third and 44 at the finish.

It was the seventh straight lopsided victory for the Iranians who moved to the semis versus the winner of the China-Chinese Taipei match.

“We don’t care (who we play in the semis). Both are good teams. It will be an interesting match whichever we play,” said Iran coach Mehmed Becirovic.

Hamed Haddadi, watched in the gallery by New York Knicks chief scout Gary Boyson, piled up 20 points, eight rebounds and three blocks to lead the Iran show of A1 basketball versus Jordan.

Haddadi and his teammates just didn’t give the Jordanians a slight opening for a repeat of their Wuhan ambush.

“My team was deeply concentrated on the game. They did what we needed to do, dominating the rebounding, making 45 percent of our three-point shots and 86 percent of our free throws,” said Becirovic.

“There’s a big difference now in Jordan and Iran basketball. You can see that even in club level. They put a lot of money in their basketball,” said Jordan chief playmaker Wesam Al-Sous who then called the attention of their federation.

Jordan was relegated to the fight for fifth spot after placing second in Wuhan in 2011 and third in Tianjin in 2009.

Greek coach Evangelos Alexandris and his team barely made the knockout stage, edging out Japan for fourth place in Group E.

They were clobbered by Chinese Taipei, Gilas Pilipinas and Qatar, then came their worst nightmare in Iran.