Czech Republic beats Iran to open Olympic men's basketball tournament

Czech Republic opened up the festivities with an 84-78 win over Iran in the first game of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic men's basketball tournament on Sunday morning at the Saitama Super Arena.

Patrick Auda scored 16 points to lead the winners while Blake Schilb added 14 as the European team took the early lead in Group A, which also has the United States and France.

Tomas Satoransky, a member of the Chicago Bulls and the Czech team's most prominent player, struggled in the game, shooting 2-for-14 from the field and turning the ball over six times.

But he still found a way to help his team as he logged team-highs of eight rebounds, eight assists, and five steals to go along with six points in more than 34 minutes of action.

Iran, a familiar rival of the Gilas Pilipinas national team, was led by Behnam Yakchali, who scored 23 points.

Mohammad Jamshidi posted 16 points and seven assists while big man Hamed Haddadi added a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Czech Republic led by a comfortable 21 points, 67-46, at the end of three quarters after Satoransky assisted on baskets from teammates Ondrej Balvin and David Jelinek.

But Iran got back into the game with a 15-2 run to start the fourth quarter - 10 of those coming from Jamshidi.

They still trailed by 10, 73-63, with 3:38 remaining but back-to-back baskets form Haddadi that capped a quick 8-3 run got them to within five near the last two minute mark.

Auda and Schild, though, had the answers for Czech Republic in the endgame as they came away with the win.

Iran outscored Czech Republic, 32-17, in the fourth quarter.

—JMB, GMA News