Kiefer Ravena’s best outing was still not enough to topple defending B.League champion Chiba as Shiga fell 83-89, Sunday at Funabashi Arena
Ravena played like a man possessed in the ball game, tallying 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field, 4-of-5 from downtown. He also had 10 assists and three steals. Moreover, he held Yuki Togashi scoreless for the first time this season.
Right from the get-go, the 6-foot Ateneo product dropped 10 points in the opening frame.
And in the final frame, the Phenom tried to will the Lakestars to an upset.
Trailing 78-71 with 7:14 left, Ravena scored three straight points while finding Ovie Soko for a jumper to cut the lead down to two.
Josh Duncan scored on an and-one, but Ravena managed to answer right back.
Fumio Nishimura though drained two big treys to give Chiba an 88-80 lead with 2:13 remaining.
Misses by Soko from both the field and the charity stripe and a miss by Ravena late led to an escape act by Chiba.
Chiba, who rose to 8-3, was led by Duncan who had 18 points and nine rebounds. Nishimura got 16 points as well built on five treys.
Takuma Sato and Gavin Edwards had 11 and 12 points, respectively, with the latter also grabbing 10 rebounds.
Shiga dropped its third straight game to fall to 6-5 in the west.
Soko and Sean O’ Mara had 18 points each. The former also grabbed 13 rebounds, while the latter had seven rebounds and four assists to his line.
Ravena and Shiga will look to bounce back on Wednesday when they host Shimane at Ukaruchan Arena.
