All throughout his young career, Kiefer Ravena has always played in front of crowds where the majority cheer for him and his team, from the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles, to ABL club team Alab Pilipinas, to the national team Gilas Pilipinas.
Now that he has turned pro, that has seen a change. And on Saturday night at Cuneta Astrodome, the NLEX super rookie got a taste of playing against a crowd when the Road Warriors faced crowd darlings Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
Some young cagers tend to be overcome with emotions when playing Ginebra, for every venue automatically turns into the Gin Kings’ homecourt. And that seemed to have played a huge part in Ravena’s outing, as he only scored seven points — down from the 17.67 points he averaged prior to the game.
“Unfortunately tonight, I wasn’t able to give my best game. I respect them, and they deserve your best every single night,” said the 2017 Draft’s second overall pick, as he shot just 1-of-12 from the floor in 29 minutes and 45 seconds.
“I was there with my shots, but ‘di lang pumapasok.”
But his personal outing was the least of his concern. Like he always insists, personal bad games do not matter to him as long as they win, and that’s exactly what happened, as the Road Warriors stunned Ginebra, 81-78.
“Well it was a tough night but a win is a win. We’ll take it any day, any night, especially at this point in the conference,” said the 24-year-old point guard moments after the win, which snapped their four-game skid.
NLEX shot a horrid 35.7 percent from the floor, and even head coach Yeng Guiao could not find the words to explain how they won. But for Ravena, he is thankful that veterans Cyrus Baguio and Larry Fonacier were there for them.
“Individually it was a tough game for each and everybody but we’re lucky enough to have Cyrus and Larry step up,” said Ravena, as Fonacier led the Road Warriors with 17 markers, while Baguio scored 11 of his 13 points in the fourth.
“It was a tough shooting night for all of us, but we came out with the important stops at the end.”
Now at 3-4 and with their playoff hopes still alive, the Road Warriors have to do much better in their last four games. Ravena, however, doesn’t want to look too far ahead, saying that they’ll take their assignments one at a time.
“We’ll take it a game at a time just like now, nagfocus kami sa Ginebra lang. ‘Di namin inisip na kailangan namin manalo ng dalawa, tatlong sunod, kinailangan lang namin manalo ngayon,” the product of Ateneo de Manila shared.
“We think of it a day at a time, and the more that we can focus on the little things that made us win tonight.”
