The turnaround of the NLEX franchise made a huge turn for the better Wednesday evening as for the first time in its young four-year history, the Road Warriors made it to the semifinals.
Helping change the fortunes of the once-struggling franchise was rookie Kiefer Ravena.
“This last draft, nakuha natin yung isang magaling na player, si Kiefer Ravena,” recalled NLEX head coach Yeng Guiao during the unveiling of the Road Warriors’ new logo last December.
“Pero bago natin siya nakuha, mahirap yung pinagdaan natin.”
Ravena proved to be as good as advertised. And in their quarterfinals showdown against Alaska, the 6-foot combo guard steered NLEX with norms of 18.0 points, 7.5 assists, and 1.5 steals, helping the Road Warriors sweep the Aces.
After their franchise-defining win, the 24-year-old could not help but look back on the journey so far.
“Sobrang saya siyempre, first eh. First for the franchise, hindi lang sa akin. And pinaghirapan talaga, from kulelat kami nung nag 2-4 kami. We had that four-game winning streak which really propelled us to believing na kaya naming makapag-playoffs,” Ravena recalled.
“Those four games were really tough. It was really heavy on us, na parang nung nag 2-4 kami, parang ang bigat-bigat. Everybody just wanted to win, nagtulungan na talaga kaming lahat.
“It started from one game, the Ginebra game, if I’m not mistaken, then the Meralco game, the Blackwater game, and one more. Talagang sabi namin tulungan lang tayo, kaya natin ‘to. And we’re here now. We just want to continue playing for the franchise and playing for one another,” he furthered.
But now, the true test for the Road Warriors begin as they are set to take on the second-seeded Magnolia Hotshots. During the elimination round, Magnolia completely had its way against NLEX, taking a 105-94 win last January 14.
This time though Ravena is preparing himself for Paul Lee and the plethora of guards the Hotshots have in their disposal.
“Di mo masosolusyunan kasi yun eh. Mahirap solusyunan si Paul. Alam mo naman kung gaano ka-crafty and kung gaano ka-cerebral si Paul maglaro,” shared Ravena as Lee had 21 points in that game, spiked by four triples.
“You try to take away one game from him or one aspect of his game, he shows you another. That’s why he’s Paul Lee.
“It’s gonna be a battle. We can’t treat him like invincible siya, na hindi na namin siya mas-stop. We’ll have to find ways, we’ll make a game plan to make it easy on us. Well to find a way, hindi naman sya magiging madali, pero ganun talaga. We have to pick our poison with Paul, with Magnolia na nagpe-peak pa ngayon especially after that momentum-changing win with GlobalPort. Mabigat yun, so we have to brace ourselves talaga,” closed NLEX’s veteran-like rookie.
