By ADRIAN STEWART CO

Ilonggo Ferdinand “Thirdy” Ravena III struggled in his return but the San-En NeoPhoenix was able to snap its eight-game losing skid in the 2020-21 B.League on Saturday at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center in Japan.

The former Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles star ended up with just five points, three rebounds and two assists in NeoPhoenix’s 83-69 domination over Levanga Hokkaido.

This was the Iloilo City-native Ravena’s first game back after being tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, late last month. He missed a couple of NeoPhoenix matches as a result.

Ravena was visibly slower than usual when he was inserted by NeoPhoenix head coach Branislav Vicentic at the 3:13 mark of the first quarter. He took advantage of the extended garbage time to get his conditioning back after recovering from COVID-19.

The struggles of Ravena, however, was not felt by San-En in the match with Stevan Jelovac waxing hot to finish with double-double 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Jelovac’s hot shooting at the onset of the match allowed the NeoPhoenix to establish a 41-28 advantage at the half. The lead grew further to 73-43 midway in the fourth quarter.

Apart from Jelovac, Kyle Hunt also had a solid showing for the NeoPhoenix with a double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds, Takanobu Nishikawa scored 11 points on a 3-of-5 clip from downtown. The NeoPhoenix improved to 3-17 win-loss record.

Javad Williams finished with 15 points and eight assists for the 4-15 Hokkaido, which missed the services of American import Nick Mayo./ASC, WDJ