Ravena edges Ferrer for 2nd MVP plum

MANILA, Philippines – Ateneo captain Kiefer Ravena kept his stature as the UAAP’s top individual performer after topping the race for Season MVP race once more.

The explosive guard amassed 69.500 statistical points throughout the 14-game eliminations to clinch the coveted plum, beating his closest rival, Kevin Ferrer of top seed University of Santo Tomas, who accumulated 67.3571 SPs.

Ravena logged league-best averages of 18.9 points and 4.9 assists and ranked third in steals with 1.2 per game, according to statistics provided by Imperium.  

The 5-foot-11 spitfire was also good for 6.1 rebounds an outing as his all-around game and leadership helped the Blue Eagles reach the Season 78 Final Four as third seed against No. 2 Far Eastern.

“Masasabi ko lang na maganda maging MVP kung makakapag-finals kami and eventually makapag champion (It’s nice to get the MVP award but it will be better if we reach the finals and eventually win the championship),” said Ravena who became the first back-to-back MVP since current NBA D-League player Ray Parks in 2012.

“Ayoko siyang maging tulad nung last year. Championship talaga ang main goal ko at ng team kaya kailangan muna namin manalo sa Sabado (I don’t want a repeat of my previous MVP season where we bowed out in the Final Four. Winning the championship team remains the top priority so we need to win Saturday’s do-or-die against FEU),” he added.

Ferrer, the league’s top three-point shooter with 32 conversions and third-best scorer with 17.9 ppg, fell short in his effort to join the ranks of former juniors MVPs who went on to annex the plum in the seniors.

Alfred Aroga of fourth seed National U finished third in the race with 63.2857 SPs, followed by Jeron Teng of ousted La Salle (60.7857), Ed Daquioag of UST (60.5714), Papi Sarr of Adamson (58.2857), Karim Abdul of UST (57.4286), Gelo Alolino of NU (55.7143), and Mac Belo (54.2857) and Mike Tolomia (50.2857) of FEU.

La Salle’s Andrei Caracut emerged as the top rookie with 31.667 SPs.