WITHOUT a doubt, Shiga Lakestars' 39-point loss at the hands of the Nagoya Diamond Dolphins, 107-68 on Saturday left a bad taste in Kiefer Ravena's mouth.
So driven was the Filipino guard that he knew had to find a way to avenge that defeat.
"We knew that we have to bounce back especially after a big loss against Nagoya yesterday," Ravena said after igniting Shiga's early burst that set the tone for the 110-79 victory on Sunday and a split of the two-game series.
Redemption so sweet
The 6-foot guard redeemed himself from his horrid 1-of-13 shooting clip a day earlier as he caught fire early, scoring all of his 16 points in the first half to go with his nine assists, three rebounds, and three steals.
"For today, we just wanted to play [according to] our philosophy. Coach Luis [Guil Torres] has always told us to play hard, just stick to our system, and that's what we did. I think we started way better than the way we started last game, so we had the mindset of just playing hard and playing together as a team," he said.
The three-point story spelled the difference for both teams in the two games.
Nagoya made 13 of its 35 shots from deep in its Saturday win, compared to just two of 22 for Shiga. But it was a complete turnaround on Sunday, with the Lakestars going 14-of-30 from rainbow country to the Diamond Dolphins' 4-of-21 clip.
Ravena himself acknowledged that, noting, "I think one of the biggest factors was we were making our three-point shots. Last game we shot nine percent and that's very bad."
"But we just focused on our shots and we talked amongst each other as a team. We gave each other confidence and I think that's why our shots fell in the first half for me and then in the second half for everybody else."
That really is the method to Shiga's madness, staying the course and never letting go of its high-octane offense which has helped it become among the early leaders in this 2021-22 B.League season with a 6-2 card.
"We didn't change anything in the game plan, it was just all our attitude. It was the respect towards our opponent Nagoya, a playoff team, and just the effort, all the effort that we put in this game," Ravena said.
"It was really just the combination of our game plan and attitude of all the players that we all wanted to win tonight."
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