Thirdy Ravena showed no signs of injury two days after suffering a hard fall against Lebanon.
The 6-foot-3 winger of San-En provided the spark in Gilas Pilipinas Men’s 101-59 rout of India. The team now evens its slate in the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup’s Group D, Friday at Istora Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Ravena tallied 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting with five rebounds and two steals. He led Gilas’ 31-point second quarter that turned a 20-13 lead into a 51-33 halftime cushion.
“We wanted to come out in this ballgame and make sure to come up with a better performance than our last game – to be able to play at a certain level,” said head coach Chot Reyes.
He continued, “I must admit that we started the game pretty rough, but the players were able to recover and put a lot of pressure on India. We knew that if we prevented this from becoming a half-court game, it will increase our chances of winning. I think that’s what happened in this game.”
The romp continued in the third quarter while Rhenz Abando and Kevin Quiambao anchored Gilas’ defense. They limited the Young Cagers to just 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting from the field.
Poy Erram, though, went down with an apparent left knee injury with 3:15 left in the third canto. As he was boxing out Prashant Singh Rawat, the TNT center fell while clutching his knee.
It was just a scare, however, as Erram returned to close out the game.
The lead grew to 42 points multiple times in the closing seconds of the contest.
William Navarro was Gilas’ high point man with 18 points on a 6-of-7 shooting clip. On the other hand, Bobby Ray Parks Jr. produced 12 points, four assists, and three steals.
Abando and Quiambao also made the most of their extended playing time. The former finished with 10 points, while the latter dished out nine assists.
Muin Bek Hafeez and Pranav Prince were the sole double-digit scorers for India with 14 and 11 points, respectively.
With the win, Gilas evened their slate to 1-1 while dropping India to 0-2. New Zealand and Lebanon still face off later in the day.
The top team in the pool will advance to the quarterfinals while the second and third seeds will figure in crossover knockout games against Group C.
The Philippines will face the Tall Blacks to close out its pool phase run on Sunday at 9:00 PM (Manila time).
“Very import. Number one, at least it gets us to the next phase to get a chance to move forward and number two, it prepares us for New Zealand,” said Reyes. “We know that New Zealand is a strong team, but the one thing you can’t take away from these players is the fight in them. We have a deep level of fight in our hearts.
“We know that we don’t have our best team and best players here, but it’s not going to deter us and not stop us from playing at our best. That’s all we can do and ask for.”
The Scores:
Philippines 101 – Navarro 18, T. Ravena 17, Parks 12, Abando 10, Tamayo 9, Lopez 8, Abarrientos 8, Quiambao 6, Erram 6, Belangel 4, K. Ravena 3, Chiu 0.
India 59 – Hafeez 14, Prince 11, K. Singh 8, Tomar 7, Rawat 6, Sekhon 5, Muthu Krishnan 4, A. Singh 2, Aryan 2, Nayak 0, Goti 0.
Quarterscores: 20-13, 51-33, 82-43, 101-59.
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Highlights of the games will also be on SMART Sports.
