NLEX head coach Yeng Guiao saw his prized rookie Kiefer Ravena shine in adversity in a 105-94 loss to Magnolia, but behind that glory was the fact that the Road Warriors had few to show after their prized rookie.
Ravena finished with a career-high 31 points, with four rebounds and five assists, but was basically a one-man crew that operated NLEX’s system.
Guiao said that even though Ravena was spectacular offensively, that wasn’t the way NLEX basketball was supposed to be played.
“Kiefer played a great game today offensively but that’s not our style of play,” said Guiao Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “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.”
NLEX had three players score in double figures against Magnolia—Ravena getting 31, JR Quiñahan with 22, and Kevin Alas with 13—and all three shot 40 of the team’s total 88 field goal attempts.
It was in stark contrast to the Road Warriors’ 115-104 win over Globalport and 119-115 win over Kia, where NLEX had four and eight players score in double figures, respectively.
Guiao had no choice but let Ravena take over, pointing out that most of his players had difficulty finding the bottom of the net.
“Of course, sometimes you don’t have a choice if all your offensive options are not working and we just have to go to what is working and in this situation it was Kiefer,” said Guiao.
“I told the team that if we have to do it that way we’re not going to win too many games.”
Of the seven Road Warriors who took at least five field goal attempts, it was just Ravena, Alas, and Michael Miranda who shot 50 percent.
Juami Tiongson went 1-of-5, Alex Mallari was 1-of-10, Larry Fonacier was 3-of-7, and Quiñahan was 9-of-21 from the field, respectively.
“Kiefer played a great game offensively but he did not get enough support from the rest of the team,” said Guiao. “We’ll just take this as a lesson and hope that by Friday [against San Miguel] we’re able to correct ourselves.”