Jayson Castro may have gotten all the attention Sunday night due to his end-game heroics against Japan that led to an 89-85 win, but most of the spectators walked away from the SM Mall of Asia Arena chanting Kiefer Ravena’s name.
Ravena, along with Roger Pogoy, Calvin Abueva, and Troy Rosario, proved to be the off-the-bench scorer for Gilas when the home team couldn’t find anything working in the game’s early goings, which allowed Japan to take a 20-4 lead.
The quartet made a 17-2 rally to end the opening frame behind by just a point, 21-22, and the Ravena-Rosario duo led another Gilas scoring spree come the following chapter to turn the tables and gain a 15-point edge, 41-26.
For the NLEX Road Warriors super rookie though, he and the second group simply did their part.
“Ginawa lang namin ang trabaho namin bilang second group,” said Ravena. “We saw the first group medyo walang energy.
“That’s why you have seven other players to step up. That second group really gave everything that we got.”
Ravena, who finished with 13 points and five assists, was the youngest player on the court Sunday night at 24 years old. According to him, to deliver in a big stage was a result of playing alongside the country’s best.
“In terms of preparing on the big stage, siguro malaking bagay yung araw-araw mong nakakasama yung pinakamagagaling na players dito sa atin, especially with the trust of the coaching staff.
“Hind mo naman makukuha yun ‘pag hindi nagtitiwala yung coaching staff sa’yo, yung teammates mo, so I guess the preparation is just a matter of playing together, trusting the system, trusting yourself as well,” the four-time SEA Games gold medalist shared. “Lahat naman kami, pwede mag-step up sa big stage.”
Gilas has already qualified for the next round after Sunday’s win. But they can’t set their sights there yet, as they still have to think about the third window. With that, Ravena hopes that they can bring this window’s lessons in June.
“All we have to do is think about the things that we did right, carry over to the next [window].”
