TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (MNA) – Iran defeated Jordan 72-54 in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday to secure the first ticket to the 2023 FIBA Women's Asia Cup Division B final.

The victory sealed Iran a trip to the Final, inching them closer to a FIBA Women's Asia Cup Division A debut, Tehran Times reported.

Iran were winless in 2021, their first appearance in the Women's Asia Cup since 1974, which makes this inspiring run to the Final all the more impressive.

In a physical game between both squads, Iran were able to maintain the form that got the team to the Semi-Finals which meant playing hard-nosed defense and distributing offense among the entire team, fiba.basketball reported.

Even though Jordan's Aisha Sheppard ended up with 24 points, it took her 18 attempts and had to earn most of her points from the free throw line.

Iran's leading scorer was Faezeh Shahriari, who knocked down 5 three-pointers to end up with 22 points. She has been one of Iran's top scorers in the competition, though her improvement is something that must be noted as the 28-year-old scored only 17 points through the entire competition in 2021.

Iran will play the winners of Thailand and Indonesia in the final on Saturday.

MNA/TT