Hamed Ehadadi scored 18 points and 8 rebounds to lead Iran trounce defending champion China 77-68 here on Monday at the final match of the group round of the 2007 FIBA Asia men's basketball Championship.

With the victory, Iran, who remained a unbeaten record, topped the Group A, which was called "Group of Death".

"We went into the match with a three-point agenda," Iran coach Toroman Rajko said after the match. "First, we wanted to win. Second, we wanted to give a rest to our key players, considering we had played two tight games and we have many more. Thirdly, we wanted to give our bench strength a serious try."

"And I think we achieved all of that. We are ready for the next game," added Rajko.

Having the bench players for the first two quarters, Iran sent its main center Ehadadi at the start of the third and he changed the game totally.

He scored 18 points in 15 minutes and eight rebounds, including four each offense and defense. The Chinese players could not stop him on the court but tried to prevent him from holding the ball.

"He (Ehadadi) made a huge difference," said Rajko. "I want to rest him before the match because the game is not important for us. He is the best player of our team, but I have never seen him play like this."

As a result, Iran played a more fluently game than they had earlier and rallied to the final victory with a 10-0 run in the third quarter.

Bian Qiang scored 15 points for China, Chen Chen added 13 points while Yang Ming 11.

"China had big up and down during the game and Iran's big guys were too strong for our young players." said A Dijiang, headcoach of China. "We also want to score under the basket, but the players apparently could not do that."

Iran will face the Chinese Taipei team on Tuesday in the quarter-final, while China will clash with Hong Kong, China in the play-off.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2007)