By REYNALD MAGALLON
Filipinos put on a show in the Japan B. League with Thirdy Ravena shining the most after helping San-En Neo Phoenix to sweep of the Kyoto Hannaryz over the weekend.
Ravena put up a career-high 28 points apart from his seven rebounds and two steals to lead San-En’s 88-70 win over Kyoto in their first meeting before following it up with another splendid display of 17 points on an efficient 6-of-8 shooting from the field.
He also had nine rebounds, two assists and two steals as the NeoPhoenix also spoiled the career-game of Filipino import Matthew Wright in the 101-95 repeat over the Hannaryz.
Wright made up for his dismal five point performance in their first encounter dropping 31 points built on seven triples in the losing effort in the second game as Kyoto now winless through four games.
The weekend also featured a duel of top Filipino imports in Ray Parks Jr. and Dwight Ramos although the former’s Nagoya came out on top in the two games against the latter’s Levanga Hokkaido.
Parks had 14 points in the Diamond Dolphins 100-95 win while Ramos had a losing effort of 16 points, six steals, five rebounds, two assists and a block.
Parks then finished with eight points in Nagoya’s 92-73 win, putting Ramos’ 14-point performance to waste anew.
AJ Edu also had back-to-back solid showing for Toyama Grouses although not enough for his team to finally score their breakthrough win.
The Gilas Pilipinas standout posted 18 points, eight rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block in Saturday’s 96-84 loss to Nagasaki Velca. He followed it up with 19 points, nine rebounds, three assists, and one block in the 94-83 loss to the same team the next day.
RJ Abarrientos’ Shinshu Brave Warriors also suffered a sweep at the hands of Chiba Jets.
The former FEU star only had eight points in the 87-83 loss on Saturday while he bounced back with 13 in the 86-85 defeat the following day.
Carl Tamayo also saw limited minutes in Ryukyu’s two wins over Shibuya. He was scoreless through 11 minutes in the first win, 93-86 while he made the most of his five minutes in the 84-82 win with five points.
Kai Sotto remained on the sidelines for the Hiroshima Dragonflies’ split of its games against Saga. Jordan Heading also didn’t see action for Nagasaki as he was still recovering from a back injury.
