MANILA – Kiefer Ravena came up with timely contributions for Gilas Pilipinas. They scored a 63-48 victory over Iran Team B in the 2023 Heyuan WUS International Basketball Tournament on Monday night at the Xiaoqing Sport Center in China.
With both teams knotted at 46-all early in the fourth quarter, the Iloilo City-native Ravena found a wide-open Roger Pogoy, who connected on a three-pointer to break the deadlock at 49-46.
After several minutes of scoring drought for both teams, the national men’s basketball team widened their lead to 51-47 on a breakaway layup from Jamie Malonzo at the halfway mark of the quarter.
Gilas Pilipinas pulled away further as Ravena and Bobby Ray Parks Jr. converted two straight outside shots while connections from Dwight Ramos gave the national team its biggest lead of 15 points.
Ravena, who is playing as Asian Quota Player for Shiga Lakes in Japan B.League, finished with nine points, six rebounds and six assists as Gilas Pilipinas finished their campaign in the pocket tournament with 3-1 win-loss slate.
Ramos top-scored for the Vincent “Chot” Reyes-mentored crew with double-double 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Malonzo also had double-double 11 points and 14 rebounds.
The national men’s basketball team defeated the same Iranian team on Thursday, 76-65 before they suffered a 72-64 loss to Senegal a day later but they managed to bounce back on Sunday night with a 75-63 win.
“As you can see, we’re playing everyone here in China. It’s really because we want to take a look at various combinations,” Reyes said in an interview with One Sports’ Carlo Pamintuan.
“The way the guys are playing and [considering] the effort they’re putting on the floor, it’s making it extremely hard for us to make those decisions,” added the long-time national team mentor.
Gilas Pilipinas returned to the country on Tuesday and will still have friendlies against Mexico and Montenegro on home soil, where they will be joined by Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson./PN
BOX SCORE:
PHILIPPINES 63 – Ramos 17, Malonzo 11, Ravena 9, Edu 8, Newsome 4, Fajardo 4, Oftana 3, Pogoy 3, Perez 2, Parks 2, Aguilar 0, Abando 0.
IRAN 48 – Yazarlou 9, Dalirzahan 6, Kashani 6, Azari 5, Khosravi 5, Jafari 5, Hatamifar 4, Mokarian 3, Taberi 2, Sharifi 2, Alizadeh 1, Rahimian 0.
Quarterscores: 26-16, 31-30, 44-43, 63-48.
