Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup 2013: Blue Granada (Ateneo vs. La Salle Elimination Round Match)

   While I was in the car last Saturday "watching" the Ateneo - La Salle game through my twitter, I read a certain tweet that had the moniker "Blue Granada" to it. So, who is Blue Granada?

  The one and only Kiefer Ravena.

Blue Granada was virtually unstoppable against La Salle.

  Now, some of you may wonder, why are some basketball pundits calling Kiefer, the Blue Granada?

  First, he's being coached by Bo Perasol, who formerly coached the Powerade Tigers. In that same Powerade team, he coached a monster of a scorer... which brings us to our second reason.

  Gary David was this monster of a scorer, and his moniker was El Granada because he was virtually unstoppable in the offensive end. So now, I will recap the game that was, and I will also answer the question...

  Is Kiefer deserving of the moniker Blue Granada?

Nagliyab nga ba ang kamay ni Kiefer Ravena?

  The game started off with a shootout from both teams. Jason Perkins would hit a three to start the game, and Juami Tiongson would answer back with a jumper of his own. Thomas Torres would hit a three to extend the lead to 4 points, and immediately, Nico Elorde would answer back with his own three. With 9 minutes and 25 seconds to go in the opening canto, the score was 6 - 5 in favor of the Green Archers. The Green Archers would go on to split their charities to increase the lead by 2. After that well... the Archers went cold and the Eagles went hot.

  Kiefer would go on to miss his first two attempts, but eventually he would hit a contested jumper in the weak side. They would score in a variety of ways. Whether it be Kiefer posting up, using excellent ball movement to find the open man, or executing in the transition well, they would score. Ateneo unleashed a 13 - 0 run using all of those, and La Salle found themselves trapped in a 11 point hole late in the middle of the first quarter. La Salle would eventually stop the drought that they were experiencing, but by the end of the first quarter they were down 24 - 15. Kiefer had a quiet 6 points to end the quarter.

Norbert and the Green Archers took advantage
of Kiefer's absence with a 10 - 0 blast
to start the second period.

   To start the second quarter, Ateneo paraded rookies Earl Murphy and Vince Tolentino. Kiefer Ravena was sitting in the bench to start the quarter, much to the delight of the La Salle crowd. The Green Archers took advantage of the loss of firepower of Ateneo by creating a huge 10 - 0  run led by Almond VosoTRES (who would hit 3 threes in that run) to catapult themselves to their first lead ever since the 7 - 5 lead they had against the Blue side during the first quarter. Ateneo would call a timeout, and The Phenom would enter the court. From there on, we were treated to...

  The Kiefer Ravena Show.

  Kiefer would hit a jumper to bring the lead back to the Eagles. After pulling off a stop on the other end, Kiefer would calmly bring the ball and elude Thomas Torres to hit another jumper near the left elbow. In practically a span of 50 seconds, Kiefer would start a 4 - 0 run for the Eagles. It didn't end there.

 Juami would hit a jumper at the weak side to extend the lead of the Blue side to 6. La Salle would miss. Ateneo would hit a shot. Kiefer and the Eagles continued to wax hot, and they countered La Salle's 10 - 0 run with an 11 - 0 run of their own. Kiefer would continue to hit his shots, despite the number of men being tasked to defend him. Robert Bolick would try to get into the head of The Phenom, but to no avail. It would only make Kiefer even more unstoppable. At the end of the first half, Ateneo led 42 - 33. Among the 18 points that Ateneo scored that quarter, Kiefer would score 12 of them. 18 points for The Phenom after one half.

Kiefer hit numerous fade aways like this in the second quarter.
Blue Mamba or Blue Granada?

  Now, you may ask... where is Jeron Teng in the scheme of things?

  Well for the first half, Jeron was blank. He didn't hit a SINGLE field goal in the half, and he wasn't even able to get to the line. His lack of a jump shot was exposed in this half, as Ateneo's defense in the inside was enough to stop Jeron from scoring through hard drives.

Jeron was left scoreless in the second half.

  To start the second half, La Salle paraded a different starting unit. Jeron Teng was no where to be seen in the starting five of the Archers for the start of the second half, where his poor first half might have been a factor. Despite the different unit, there weren't any results. Ateneo would start the quarter with a 8 - 0 blast to extend the lead to 17 points. Coach Gee would immediately call a timeout, and all of a sudden, they had to play to Ateneo's pace because of the huge lead. Sadly for Coach Gee (hey that rhymes!), this would actually benefit the Eagles. Ateneo would continue their onslaught, even extending the lead to a whopping 20 points.

  At that point, the regular rotation guys of Ateneo were given some rest. Guys like Isaac Lim and Anton Asistio were given some burn by the middle of the third quarter. It was La Salle's chance to cut the lead down to a respectable amount before the final quarter. They were able to, cutting the lead down to 12 at the end of the third quarter. Jeron Teng finally scored his first field goal, taking advantage of Ateneo resting their main guys. It was once again a winnable game for the Archers. That wasn't the main story line for this quarter though. It wasn't even Kiefer, although he ended the quarter with a more than respectable 24 point output.It was the quality minutes of rookie sharpshooter Anton Asistio.

Anton Asistio hit some big time baskets for the Katipunan five.

   Asistio was 0 of 11 during the course of the tournament from rainbow country. In the juniors ranks, he was known as a sharpshooter, somewhat in the form of a Jai Reyes. He proved that in the third quarter.

  First, he would deliver a sweet no look pass to Vince Tolentino for the easy deuce. After that, he would hit his very first three pointer for the tournament, much to the delight of the Ateneo bench. He was beaming with confidence. He would hit one more, to end his strong showing for the quarter.

  The fourth quarter would start really well for the green side. They would cut the lead down to 6 points at 67 - 61. Ateneo looked like they were tired, and the La Salle crowd was pumped up. The Archers had all the momentum in the world. They even had a chance to cut the lead down to three after an open Jeron Teng three pointer, although Jeron would fumble that one. Would La Salle finally get over the hump? Kiefer said, not just yet.

  He would score two straight baskets to weather the run of La Salle and to bring the lead back to double digits. The lead would go down to 73 - 65 at around the 4 minute mark. La Salle still had a chance to win the game. 4 minutes is a lot of time. Unless a momentum shifting play like, let's say a 3 point play happens. That's exactly what happened to the Archers.

Vince would hit this big time shot to weather
the La Salle storm.

   Vince Tolentino would complete a three point play to extend the lead to 11. 3 minutes, 11 point lead. La Salle could have just given up. But they wouldn't.

   They would cut the lead down to 6 points at the one minute mark. We've seen crazier things happen in college basketball, so that 6 point lead wasn't impossible to over come. At the 50 second mark, Chris Newsome would grab a rebound, but La Salle would trap him. He would be called for the travelling. Jeron Teng had the ball in his hands, and he had one thing in his mind; drive to the basket. Drive he did, and he drew the foul from Newsome. 

  Two free throws for Jeron. He would miss his first. The La Salle community asked Jeron to hit at least one. Sadly, he'd miss his second. 

  Jeron would grab his own miss though, and he'd attempt another drive. Sadly, Ryan Buenafe would block that attempt out of bounds. La Salle still had around 35 seconds to make something up. 13 seconds in 33 seconds like Tracy McGrady perhaps? 

  Inbound La Salle. The ball was in Thomas Torres' hands. He had to make a play quick. He would try to pass to his team mate in the left corner, but sadly it was swiped by the same man who blocked Jeron's shot; Ryan Buenafe. He'd tap the ball to Kiefer, and that was the final nail in the coffin.

This drive by Ravena was
the final nail in the coffin for the Archers.

  Game over. Ateneo would end up winning, 78 - 70.

  Kiefer would lead the Eagles with a monster 31 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal line. That was his 2nd 30 point game for the tournament, although it was a more efficient outing for him. He was a super efficient 13 of 19 from the field, and he was 5 of 6 from the free throw line.

  La Salle was led by Jason Perkins. He wound up with a quiet 15 point 14 rebound line. He was limited to only 7 attempts though.

  Jeron Teng had 14 points for the Archers, but he was far from efficient. He missed 12 out of his 18 attempts from the field. He was also 2 of 4 from the charity stripe.

Thomas Torres and the Green Archers
have to go back to the drawing board.

  Before I answer the question that I asked at that start of this post, I'll just bring two points that led to this Ateneo win.

  First, La Salle's offense noticeably looked cluttered. At the start of the game, La Salle was relying on three point jumpers, whereas they could have pounded it inside to abuse the front line of Ateneo. Coach Gee did that at certain points in the game, but Ateneo seemed to be triple teaming the big man in the post, thus giving the ball handler a tough time to pass the ball outside. Ateneo was simply too darned scrappy. Because of that, La Salle was left asking themselves what they had to do to get a basket. This brings me to my second point which is..

  Ateneo's excellent team defense. Here's the thing, Ateneo cannot defend La Salle one on one unlike before where they could rely on Greg to defend Norbert of AVO one on one. They have to realize that team defense will be key to shutting down the La Salle front line. Realize they did. Their defense was crazy scrappy. It was frustrating to watch for any La Salle supporter. It was a thing of beauty for an Ateneo fan. Hats off to Coach Bo, he's added the Norman Black system of defense with some of his own. 

  Now, let's answer the question I asked earlier. Is Kiefer deserving of the moniker Blue Granada? In my opinion yes, but he's a way different Granada from Gary (other than the fact that his moniker starts with Blue and not El).

  Gary's more of a outside shooter, who's outside shots make you say "BANG!!!". In short, they can be momentum changing shots that make the opponents go, "Oh *expletive* he's about to explode".

  Kiefer on the other hand is a more complete scorer who relies on post moves, fade aways, transition baskets, and sometimes, slashes in the half court. His shots don't make you go "BANG!!", and his shots aren't the types that explode. His shots are the type that make a fan go "Oh here he goes again", and that make opponents go "Oh come on". Honestly sometimes, I have no idea how he hits those fade aways. It's crazy.

  In the end though, both are great scorers. Gary has proven himself in the pro ranks, and Kiefer is definitely on his way there. Blue Granada or not though, one thing is for sure...

  Kiefer is crazy good.

Ateneo - La Salle box score (courtesy of the Filoil Flying V Sports FB page)

Source: All photos in this post are courtesy of Mr. Philip Sison, Mr. Jan Dizon, Mr. Mon Rubio, Mr. Paul Ryan Tan, and to those it may concern.