TEHRAN – Iran’s women’s basketball team head coach Eleni Kapogianni is satisfied with her girls at the 2023 FIBA Women's Asia Cup Division B.

Iran earned a historic win over Malaysia in Group A on Sunday and also defeated Mongolia a day later.

Any coach would love to see this level of confidence from their players. Kapogianni certainly appreciates that, but she also wants to keep the team level-headed after their historic win.

Iran had led by as much as 16 points against Malaysia before allowing their opponents to comeback and even tie the score up late in the final quarter. They managed to come away with a victory, but it was not a perfect one - at least by coach Kapogianni's standards.

“Listen, if the players played perfectly we should [have won] by 30 points but, it's the first game, and they have an excuse,” she told FIBA.com.  

Nonetheless, that doesn't take away what the team accomplished and their potential in this competition.

“I'm happy at the end because my players showed character and finally what matters at the end is that we won and I'm very proud of them,” the Greek coach added.