INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines? After winning a back to back title in the UAAP juniors, Kiefer Ravena with Von Pessumal and Paolo Romero are back to regular practice in the Nokia Pilipinas U16 team for the upcoming FIBA Asia on November 19 to 29.

The Eaglets Ravena, Pessumal and Romero played crucial role in the Game 3 match against the De La Salle Zobel Junior Archers, 61 to 56
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?We?re back on our regular practice with the RP team practicing almost everyday for the tournament,? said the Finals most valuable player Ravena.

U16 mentor Eric Altamirano told INQUIRER.net that the national team was aiming to regroup the team players since they all had been busy with their respective schools.

?The last time that we were able to practice as a whole team was June after our friendly match in Beijing and after that we allowed the players to focus with their respective schools,? said Altamirano.

Altamirano added that although the players were active with the tournaments, they would still need to undergo ?conditioning? since international competition still requires different training since they will again be exposed to other countries.

?Our immediate plan is to regroup them and condition them for the international competition for the first two weeks,? said Altamirano noting that they only have five remaining weeks before their competition in Malaysia.

Altamirano also added that they have 17 players as of the moment but they would have to trim it down to 15 players and he noted that the Fil-Am Bobby Parks won?t be joining the line up since he was still in the US.

The remaining weeks for them according to Altamirano will also be allotted to train the players as one team again with their tune up games in Cebu on November 5-9 for the Nokia Invitational Cup.

Also included in the U16 team are University of Santo Tomas Cub Kevin Ferrer and Ralph Nayve of San Beda College.