TEHRAN - Kazakhstan defeated Iran for the second time Friday night during Window 3 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers.

Kazakhstan proved that their win over Iran this past February was not an outlier. Kazakhstan repeated the feat, defeating Iran 68-60 at the Saryarka Velodrome in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan's top playmaker, Rustam Murzagaliyev, seized the opportunity to show his shooting prowess in this match. He led all scorers with 26 points to go along with 7 rebounds. Dmitriy Gavrilov and Roman Marchuk also did well with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

Iconic big man Hamed Haddadi finally returned to action for Iran in his first game of this World Cup Qualifiers, scoring 18 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and blocking 4 shots.

Iran and Kazakhstan will face each other again in the upcoming Asia Cup as they are both in Group C, fiba.basketball reported.

Iran, headed by Saeid Armaghani, will travel to Aleppo to play Syria.

Iran sit second in Group D with eight points, two points behind Kazakhstan.