In the quarterfinals of the tournament, the 3X3 basketball squad of Iran’s Payame Noor University lost to Mongolian rivals 19-20 to occupy the fifth place in the final table of rankings.
“Despite good performance of Persian athletes in the neck-on-neck match, we fell short of victory with only one fewer goal and we failed to secure a position among four top teams,” said Iran’s Head Coach Mohammadreza Eslami post-match.
Under the rules of the World Basketball League, four top teams will compete for the first to third titles while the rest of the teams will be ranked according to their scores.
The Iranian squad suffered a defeat in the face of China in their opening encounter though they later thrashed rivals from Indonesia, France and New Zealand.
Persian basketball players had landed in the sixth position in the previous edition of the sportive event.
The third edition of WUL 3X3 Basketball kicked off on September 14 in China’s Xiamen and will run through September 17. A total of 16 university teams will be present at the sportive event to represent various continents.
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