Jordan held off a late strong surge of Iran in the fourth quarter for its opening victory 62-59 at the Doha Asian Games men's basketball tournament, which kicked off here on Thursday.

Trailing 49-42 after three quarters, Iran staged a 12-2 run early in the fourth on back of aggressive defense to overtake the lead 54-51 with less than four minutes remaining in the Group A clash.

However, Jordan regained the advantage after Ayman Idais made two free throws and a big three-pointer to make it 56-55 two minutes and 36 seconds from the end and never looked back.

The last minutes were hotly contested as Hamed Ehadadi, the 2.18-meter center who had 13 points and nine rebounds for Iran, sustained injures to his foot and was carried off the field while his teammate Hamed Afagh Eslamieh was fouled out.

"We are a young team and it's our first game at the Games. The players were nervous early in the fourth and made many errors against their press (defense), but I am happy we were able to keep calm and won through," said Jordan head coach Mario Palma.

"It's also important that we played very good defense today. We held them to 13 points in the first quarter, I am proud of my kids," Palma added.

Wesam Alsous led Jordan with 19 points and Idais added 16.

Jordan built a 32-23 lead in the first half before Al Khas Zaidmade a three-pointer at the buzzer to give it a 49-42 lead after three quarters.