MANILA, Philippines – Kiefer Ravena dismissed rumors that the NLEX Road Warriors gifted away a win the TNT KaTropa badly needed to stay in playoff hunt.

Following NLEX’ 75-101 loss to the KaTropa, Ravena said that losing to TNT was the last thing on their minds knowing that it would allow people to draw conclusions that they lent a hand to their sister team to avoid early vacation. TNT and NLEX are under the MVP group. 

“That was one thing that we were really avoiding to hear, na marinig namin sa ibang tao na binigay namin kasi Talk N Text badly needs a win. Siguro that was you know, ganoon talaga, sa sobrang sama ng pinakita namin, ganoon talaga ‘yung lumabas. We can’t blame anybody for that,” said Ravena.

(That was one thing that we were really avoiding to hear from people, that we allowed Talk N Text to come away with a win they badly needed. I guess it is just the way it is, we played terribly that people are thinking that way. We can’t blame anybody for that.)

The Road Warriors, who saw their win streak cut to 4 games, trailed by just 9 points after the first quarter before the KaTropa broke away in the second period, heading into halftime with a comfortable 30-point cushion. 

Ravena said, coach Yeng Guiao told his boys: “We could have lost this game but not this way. It’s a terrible way to lose especially coming into the playoffs.” 

The loss was also Ravena’s worst game as a professional basketball player. The 24-year-old, who averaged 16.9 points, 5.7 assists and 3.7 rebounds in his first 10 games, finished with one point, two assists, one rebound against two turnovers in only 12 minutes of action. 

Although he was coming off a hectic week that saw him don the national colors with Gilas Pilipinas against Australia last February 22 and against Japan last February 25, Ravena is not making excuses for his dismal showing. 

The 24-year-old played the whole duration of the second quarter before being benched for the rest of the second half. 

“I guess I didn’t deserve to play and you know, I’ll learn from this. Hindi naman pwedeng may excuses na dahil galing sa Gilas, dahil ganito, pagod, dahil ganiyan, wala namang ganoon.” 

(I don’t want to make any excuses because I played with Gilas and I was tired. That is not true.) 

“I personally just played bad and you know, we just have to bounce back and stay positive going into the second round or the playoffs,” added Ravena.

The Road Warriors, who secured a spot in the quarterfinals behind a 6-5 record, are now playing the waiting game as the last few elimination games will determine the placing for the playoffs. – Rappler.com