KIEFER Ravena uncharacteristically muffed two huge free throws in the endgame, but the Shiga Lakestars defense held fort late as they took the 84-83 victory over the Kyoto Hannaryz Saturday in the 2021-22 B.League season at Hannaryz Arena.
Shocking were the misses from the Filipino import who had two shots to seal the victory that it needed a solid defensive stance from Ovie Soko on Justin Harper's desperation shot to escape with the slim one-point win.
Soko actually scored five of the last seven points for the Lakestars, before Novar Gadson made the crucial layup with 20.1 seconds left to make it an 84-81 affair in favor of the visitors.
Justin Harper refused to lose for Kyoto, canning both of his freebies with 13.5 ticks left which led to Ravena's trip to the charity stripe.
Luckily, Soko made sure that his 26 points and 15 rebounds won't go into waste as Shiga extended its win streak to three to improve to a 4-1 record.
Gadson also had 19 points, eight boards, and six assists, while Shotaro Hayashi had 11 points, two rebounds, and two assists.
Kiefer Ravena struggles
It was a performance Ravena would rather forget, not just for his missed freebies, but also for his 1-of-7 field goal shooting as he only had six points, two steals, and one rebound, failing to dish out an assist and committing three turnovers.
He gets a chance to redeem himself when Shiga plays Kyoto anew on Sunday.
Harper paced the Hannaryz with 25 points and six rebounds, while Tatsuya Suzuki also got 20 points, 16 assists, and six boards as they suffered their third straight loss to fall to 2-3.
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