Kiefer Ravena is one of the most lethal scorers in college hoops history. But for every great scorer comes a great defensive stopper. And for Ravena, he has National University’s Paolo Javelona on his heels.
Last season, Ravena and the Blue Eagles faced Javelona and the Bulldogs a total of four times. The Smart Elite ambassador averaged 18.25 points per game in those four games but shot just 25% from the field, an average of 6.25 makes on 25 attempts.
In the Ateneo Blue Eagles’ emotional double overtime victory yesterday against the NU Bulldogs, Ravena once again carried the team on his broad shoulders after finishing with a game-high performance of 21 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals. However, even though Ravena managed to put up his usual numbers, Javelona’s tight defense made him work hard for every point he scored. By mere observation of the game, most of Ravena’s shots were tough contested jumpers and botched drives since Javelona was glued to him most of the time.
“He [Javelona] is a great lockdown defender and that is the nightmares of [being guarded by] Paolo. But again, the most important thing is the final score,” an exhausted Ravena told reporters. “It was just very tiring and exhausting but coming up with that win parang nawala lang lahat.”
For the game, Ravena shot poorly from the field by only making 7 out of his 26 field goal attempts. In addition, Javelona’s punishing defense made the Smart Elite ambassador shoot 1 out of 10 from three-point land and he also had the most turnovers for his team by finishing with 5.
“Pao, he studies a lot. He watches game tapes and that goes also with the management and staff of NU,” he added. “They really prepare their players very well and it’s been six games before we won today against NU.”
Still, Ravena had the last laugh as his lone triple of the game forced overtime which eventually paved the way for the Eagles to seize the opposition’s momentum.
With NU holding a 57-54 lead with 14 seconds left in regulation, all they needed to do was to inbound the ball and milk the clock. However, a costly turnover from Gelo Alolino gave Ateneo a glimmer of hope and Ravena capitalized quickly after cold-bloodedly drilling the overtime-forcing triple over the outstretched arms of Javelona to tie the game at 57-all.
“1 out of 10 [outside shooting], ang ganda! At least may one di ba?,” Ravena jokingly remarked. “It was probably one of the toughest [I made] with Paolo [defending me] kasi I think every basket I make against Paolo is special. He really gives me a hard time just to make a basket. Pag nakakashoot talaga ako sa kanya, parang ang sarap ng feeling especially that three-pointer that helped us go into overtime.”
Now, with Ateneo exorcising their demons against NU, they have little time to rejoice as another big challenge awaits them as they are set to face the streaking University of the East Red Warriors this coming Saturday, 2:00 pm, at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“I don’t want to look at the stats anymore again but our joy couldn’t last too long because we have a game against a momentum-building UE team,” he ended. “We can’t celebrate much but we have to let this win sink in and we have to know to take big games para in the future we’ll be ready.”
