MANILA – Ateneo Blue Eagles-Philippines settled for fourth place in the 2018 William Jones Cup after a close 63-70 loss to Iran on Sunday at the Xinzhuang Gym in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
The Philippines ended its campaign in the nine-day tournament with a 5-3 win-loss slate to be just at par with the finish of Gilas Pilipinas national men’s basketball team last year.
Ateneo hung around the entire game amid the hot shooting from Iran’s Vahid Dalirzahan. The Philippines was down 2 points 62-64 with over a minute left in the match.
Angelo Kouame had a chance to tie the scores but was called for a travelling. Iran raised the lead 66-62 on a shot by Torabi Mohammed before Kouame cut the deficit to 3 with a free throw.
Iran got a split in the line from Rasoul Mozafarivanani to make it a 4-point game before Joseph Matthew Nieto attempted a 3-point shot for Ateneo but misfired. Dalirzahan sealed the win for the Iranians with a triple.
Dalirzahan led Iran with 26 points, including seven triples, while Mozafarivanani had 16 points and eight assists.
Due to the win-over-the-other rule, Iran finished as a runner-up to champion Canada even though the two had the same 7-1 card. On third place was South Korea.
Nieto – who fired the game-winning triple in Ateneo’s 77-76 win over Chinese-Taipei Blue on Saturday – led their scoring with 14 points.
Ivorian import Kouame had double-double 11 points and 14 rebounds while Ferdinand “Thirdy” Ravena III finished with 12 points, three rebounds and three assists for Ateneo./PN
