Reigning champs bounce back from defeat to hand Iranian champs first defeat of the season

TEHRAN (Iran) – Hayk Gyokchyan rose to the occasion scoring the final four points of the game and steered three-time reigning West Asia champions Al Riyadi Beirut past Shahrdari Gorgan to an 85-83 win in an entertaining 2025-26 FIBA WASL West Asia League encounter at the Azadi Sports Complex on Wednesday night.

The result helped the Lebanese powerhouse return to winning ways after their 15-game winning streak was snapped by Kazakhstan’s Astana in the previous outing, while Gorgan were left with their first defeat in four games.

The two super clubs of the region, who had clashed for the title in the opening two seasons of the WASL West Asia League, provided an expectedly full-meal ticket to the fans right through the encounter with neither able to dominate the other in either court-craft or the scoreboard.

With the game evenly poised, and equally placed on the scores, Gyokchyan tilted the scales in Riyadi’s favour successfully converting both his attempts from the foul-stripe with less than a minute left in the game.

And when Nosratollah Yazarloo faltered with his long-ranger for Gorgan, Perrin Buford transformed his defensive rebound and dished out his sixth assist of the game setting up Gyochyan for his jumper coinciding with the buzzer.

Gyokchyan had a total of 14 points and half as many rebounds for the game. Buford missed a double-double by a rebound while scoring 18 points behind Amir Saoud’s joint game-high 20 points.

Jordan Hamilton and Parrish Petty each had 20 points for Gorgan.

Farran gave credit to his players for keeping the focus when it mattered.

“It is never easy to win in an away game. And it is always good to win away from home,” he said.

“My players showed a lot of character and personality (to hold their own) under pressure. Small details made all the difference,” he added.

“We were rather determined to bounce back from our defeat in the previous game,” the coach said.

Gorgan coach Saleh Makhdoomi rued errors in the team when push came to shove.

“We made too many individual mistakes in the end, which didn’t happen before. We seemed to hold the edge, but we always we were up against a great team,” he added.

Both teams break for the New Year season with Riyadi preparing to play Al Wahda on road on Jan 9, two days after Gorgan would have hosted another Lebanese club Sagesse.

FIBA