Kiefer Ravena had himself a big night Sunday as he nailed 31 points along with five assists, four steals, and four rebounds, but it all went down the drain as he and the NLEX Road Warriors bowed to the bigger Magnolia Hotshots, 105-94, Sunday evening.
It was a display of Ravena’s brilliance and further proof that he indeed is a super rookie. Head coach Yeng Guiao lauded his career night, but was quick to iterate that it could’ve been much better had everyone contributed.
“Kiefer played a great game offensively but he did not get enough support from the rest of the team,” rued the veteran bench strategist after the bout. “With our system, we always won more games when more people got involved.
“Kiefer played a great game today offensively but that’s not our style of play.
“We don’t want one player to take over the game offensively and try to bring us or carry us on his shoulders for us to win,” he added.
JR Quiñahan and Kevin Alas were the only support Ravena had, as they made 22 and 13 points, respectively. But those who were expected to provide more — such as Larry Fonacier, Juami Tiongson, and Alex Mallari — all failed to do so.
Fonacier only had eight markers on 3-of-7 shooting; Tiongson scored just two on five shots; and Mallari, who played for 27 minutes and 27 seconds, failed to capitalize on the time he had, as he made just five markers on 1-of-10 shooting.
As a whole, the Road Warriors still converted 42 percent of their shots. But their shooting from beyond-the-arc was dismal, as they only made five out of their 24 attempts.
“If all your other offensive options are not working, then we just have to go with what is working. In this situation, it was Kiefer. But I told the team, if we have to do it that way, we’re not going to win too many games,” added Guiao.
But more than the off night for some of his wards, the champion coach also lamented their losses in a few facets. They were out-rebounded by the Hotshots 42-61, and Guiao also sees the need to fix the way they defend.
“Yun nga, two main problems: we have to fix rebounding and we have to sustain defense for the whole possession and not get broken down towards the end of the shot clock,” Guiao said. “We’ll just take this as our lesson.
“We hope that by Friday, we’re able to correct our mistakes.”
