Czech Republic open the Olympic tournament with a victory / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

The Tokyo Olympic Basketball Tournament kicked off with the Czech Republic (1-0) going up against Iran (0-1). The Czechs held off Iran 84-78 (25-19, 21-11, 21-16, 17-32) and scored their first victory.

Player of the Game EFF 19 Blake Schilb Points 14 Accuracy 6-10 Rebounds 4 Assists 5

The game went back-and-forth in the first period, however, the Czech Republic finished it off strong and held a six-point lead after one (25-19).

They proceeded to win the second and third periods, leading comfortably going into the final quarter (67-46).

Iran rallied back in the fourth and gave the Czechs a run for their money. After a 12-0 run, Iran's deficit was cut to eight with 5:39 to go (69-61). They proceeded to put pressure on the European team, and after a 3-pointer from Behnam Yakhchalidehkordi, Iran's deficit was down to only four with 1:10 remaining (80-76).

However, that was the best Iran could do, and the Czech Republic were able to hold on to a six-point victory.

Tomas Satoransky had an off-night, making just two of 14 field goals and scoring six points. However, he added eight assists, eight boards, and five steals.

The Czech Republic only made six of 30 three-pointers (20%), but they outrebounded Iran (43 to 33) and dished out more assists (29 to 20).

The Czech Republic head coach Ronen Ginzburg was happy with the game's outcome, but not with his team's play. "We've won our first game ever (at the Olympics). We started slow, but played much better in the second and third quarter, before struggling in the fourth, missing shots both inside and outside. In the end, we made the game interesting. We need to play much better against France and the USA," said Ginzburg after the game.

Meanwhile, Iran's coach Mehran Shahintab saw a lot of flaws in his team's performance: "We can't compare the stats to the final result, because we had 21 turnovers, we lost the rebounds, we missed seven free throws, we gave them a lot of shots under the basket. In the second half, the communication between the players was much better. But we still could've made ourselves stronger in the first half."

The Czech Republic: Patrick Auda 16, Blake Schilb 14, Jan Vesely 11 (7 rebounds).

Iran: Behnam Yakhchalidehkordi 23, Mohammad Jamshidijafarabadi 16, Hamed Haddad 15 (10 rebounds).

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Iran will go up against the USA on Wednesday, 07:40 (EEST), and The Czechs will face France on the same day, at 15:00 (EEST).

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