World Youth Basketball Championships in Greece - 2003-07-16

The Iranian national youth basketball team will face the Argentine national team this evening in the second round of the World Youth Championships. According to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), the Iranian youth basketball team played against the powerful Nigerian team, the African champions, yesterday. In the first quarter, with good performances from Amir Amini, Navid Zamani, and Arash Foroughi, they managed to score 14 points against Nigeria's 18 points. In the second and third quarters, despite the players' extra efforts, the score ended 42 to 28 and 65 to 38 in favor of Nigeria. In the fourth quarter, although it was a quarter of effort and fighting for Iran, the match ultimately ended with a score of 78 to 53 in favor of Nigeria. In the margins: - 6 players from the Nigerian team play in colleges in the USA. - The Nigerian coach attributed Iran's defeat to the players' lack of physical strength. - In other matches, China defeated Angola 87 to 64, Venezuela overcame South Korea 103 to 84, and Lithuania beat Australia 96 to 87. - Habib Khamejani, the Iranian referee, officiated the match between Malaysia and Argentina yesterday. - The refereeing style in the World Youth Championships is significantly different from that of referees in Iran, and one reason for the weakness in the physical strength of Iranian players is that any contact in domestic competitions is stopped by a whistle.