Scola leads Argentina past determined Iran

But the defending Olympic champions showed in their 81-71 win they still have plenty of cobwebs to get rid of before the start of the Beijing Games.

The South Americans also got 15 points – including four on a pair of explosive dunks – from Manu Ginobili.

"I'm happy that I was able to dunk a couple of times, the first time in a long while," said Ginobili, who was a big doubt with an ankle injury earlier this summer after getting hurt in the NBA play-offs.

"I'm still lacking the rhythm of the team and I've still got a long way to go."

Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez has been encouraged by the progress made by Ginobili this summer, but he has real concerns about the point guard spot.

Tau Ceramica star Pablo Prigioni led the team to a silver medal last summer at the FIBA Americas Championship with his backup Antonio Porta, but the latter missed most of the 2007-08 season with a knee injury and against Iran he went down in agony in the fourth quarter after turning his ankle.

Argentina's team doctors called the injury a minor sprain.

Iran have found the going tough all summer but Rajko Toroman's team have clearly improved and they battled from start to finish against Argentina.

They led for much of the first half before falling behind midway through the second quarter and went to the changing rooms behind 42-35.

Argentina went up by as many as 17 points but Iran refused to go away and managed to cut the deficit to 72-62 with five minutes remaining.

They would end up closing the gap to nine but got no closer.

The Iranians got 20 points from center Hamed Ehadadi and 18 from Samad Nikkhahbahrami.

Javad Davari scored 14 and came up with three steals for Iran but the Asian champions were undone by 24 turnovers compared to just 17 for Argentina.

For Argentina, Scola scored 13 of his 15 first-half points in the opening quarter.

Fabricio Oberto had eight points but fouled out in the third quarter while Andres Nocioni scored five and grabbed four rebounds.

Nocioni guarded Samad – the toughest defensive assignment on the night.