ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (22nd FIBA Asia U18 Championship): Twice former champions Iran did nothing extraordinary, but did nothing stupid either playing well within themselves and carved out a clinical 87-76 victory against Bahrain in a Group F Second Round game on Monday.

The difference in the quality of the roster and approach was very obvious right from the word go and commendable was the Bahraini youngsters’ enthusiastic and earnest efforts to stay in the game and give their best.

“We would obviously like to preserve our energy,” said Iran coach Mehran Hatami.

“It’s certainly not that we take these games easy. But then when things according to plan I’d like to preserve my players and test my bench,” he added.

Sajjad Mashayekhi (pic above) led Iran’s scoring leading all scorers with 27 points.

Ali Melad’s 19 points paced Bahrain.

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