Newcomer Afghanistan went into the Asiad basketball tournament in style as it held off Hong Kong, China, 65-57 here Thursday afternoon for an opening victory at the 2006 Doha Asian Games basketball preliminaries.

"It's really a big win for us," said Afghanistan head coach Zabi Sublt. "We are so proud of ourselves."

"After a long-time war, we want to help reintroduce Afghanistan to the world," Sublt added.

Yosuof Etemadi and Nafi Mashriqi had 16 points apiece to help the Afghani team clinch the well-deserved victory in its debut at the Asian Games.

"I am so excited with our players' performance, they did a very good job," Sublt said. "I believe they will have great future."

Wong Chun-wai nailed a three-pointer with 32.8 seconds remaining, which pulled Hong Kong, China within 59-57, but Mashriqi answered with a fast-break basket six seconds later to make it 61-57.

Then Abdullah Karimi added two from the line 8.9 seconds from the end to seal the victory for Afghanistan. Karimi finished with nine points.

Afghanistan will play its second and last match in the preliminary Group C on Friday.

"Of course we want to win the group and a berth to the next stage, we have to take one game at a time," Sublt said.

The Afghani team is composed of U.S.-based athletes with no prior international or professional basketball background. Most of the chosen players are from California and are having some college basketball experience, but the team is truly lacking height, which should be a factor in the match against Syria.