The reigning Iranian Super League champions saw their 23-point lead become just five, 70-65, with 7:57 left to play, but quickly responded as Perry Petty and Mohammad Jamshidi powered a 10-0 run to put the game away for good.
According to Tehran Times, Gorgan's strong finish also preserved their impressive second-quarter showing that put them ahead the rest of the night, where they outscored their foes 30-8, with Petty and Behnam Yakchali accounting for over half of it by combining for 16 points.
They now lead the best-of-3 series, and could finish off their Iranian counterparts in Game 2 next Thursday in the same battleground,
Yakhchali top-scored for Gorgan with 25 points on a 9-of-13 clip from the floor, alongside 5 rebounds, an assist, and a pair of steals on the way to earning STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors.
Petty produced 21 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Jamshidi had 16 points while Sajjad Pazrofteh added 13 as four of the five starters finished in double figures, fiba.com reported.
“That's the game. Sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. We didn't have enough concentration on defense and that made us go down [during the fourth quarter] mentally. But I'm happy that we have a great team -- even the bench players came and controlled the game, and we came back to a good position and controlled the game until the end,” Mehram Hatami, head coach of Gorgan said.
MNA/PR