Is Kiefer Ravena losing his end game magic?
That has been a question running through the minds of most UAAP fans after the reigning UAAP Most Valuable Player had another disastrous shooting night – this time against La Salle as the Green Archers eked out a crucial 80-76 victory
This came after spectacular clutch performances against National University and University of the East, but facing bigger teams like University of Santo Tomas and La Salle – Ravena’s magic started to fade out.
Ravena still finished with a game high 19 points but made just seven of his 24 attempts from the field and missed his final six shots to end the game.
Facing criticisms, Ravena shied away from defending himself and addressed the issue head on immediately after the game.
“Ever since naman e, some people put the blame on me, I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles,” Ravena said.
“It’s not being a hero, it’s not wanting to be a hero but if we lose, we lose by me and my captains, Von and the other guys. Ayun, ganun talaga. I played the game with no regrets. People will give their own opinions about the game and I respect that,” he added.
But make no mistake about it, Ravena is putting the loss on him once again and it’s something that he wishes to address heading into the second round.
“I missed shots, so I guess something’s gotta give. We blew a big lead, we weren’t able to capitalize on the lead. I felt bad for myself not being able to lead the team, some of our guys its their first Ateneo-La Salle game,” Ravena mentioned
“Being a leader you have to have that sense of direction for the team and that was the mental thing I wasn’t able to help the team, especially in the latter part. But La Salle is La Salle they’ll find a way,” he added.
Asked about what went wrong, Ravena said that it’s all about starting out really strong.
Leading by as many as 15, 37-22, and having a 10 point lead at the half time break, La Salle slowly inched its way back in the game as the mighty Eagles faded slowly in the back drop.
“It was just our bad habit of starting the half really bad. We have to change that, we have the second round to change that but we have to change that as soon as possible. We have to find a way to recover from this,” he said.
But at the end of the day, Ravena’s bound to make no excuses as he gives all the credit to La Salle for putting up a fantastic second half.
“You have to give credit where credit is due. La Salle stuck to its game plan, made their shots in the second half and ayun, talo kami. Ayun, we had mental lapses, probably pero talo lang talaga, there’s no one to blame but ourselves.”
