The Philippine national basketball team, Gilas Pilipinas’ rivals in the Asian Region, Iran and South Korea failed to advanced to the Round of 16 in the FIBA World Cup of Basketball, wrapping up their world basketball campaign with a losses on Thursday, September 4, 2014.
Asian powerhouse Iran, the reigning FIBA Asia champion had a chance to clinch the last berth in Group A, but the European powerhouse team France was able to escape with an 81-76 victory and failed any Asian team to proceed to the next round of the tournament.
Iranian national and Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) standout Samad Nikkhah Bahrami led the Iranians with 23 points to put a scare against European powerhouse France, a victory by Iran would have put the team in a tie with the French and the Serbians at 2-3.
The failure of Asian Basketball champion, Iran in the World Cup 2014 put them at par with the Philippines that ended the tournament with a 1-4 win-loss card. The Iranian national basketball team was earlier defeated by Spain, Brazil, and Serbia, the only victory they got was with the African runner-up Egypt, which was also eliminated in the competition.
Meanwhile the South Koreans, the third runner-up in the Asian Basketball Championship held in Manila, suffered the worst records among the Asian teams as the South Koreans were eliminated with a 5-0 win-loss card.
South Korea ended their stint in the World Cup 2014, with a fifth lopsided defeat in the tournament, they were defeated by Mexico in Group D during their last game on Thursday, with the final score at 71-87.
The Asian powerhouse team South Korea was led by Taejong Moon on their last game pouring out a total of 16 points in the losing effort against Mexico. The South Koreans were already defeated by African powerhouse, Angola, Australia, Slovenia, and Lithuania to exit the competition.