JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia — What was expected to be a light workout turned into a fight for survival as Nokia U-16 Team Pilipinas had to wage a blistering late-game rally before escaping with a 64-59 overtime win over Japan in the opening game of the Fiba Asia U-16 Men’s Championship Thursday at the Bandaraya Stadium here.

With the Japanese presenting a lot of surprises, Team Pilipinas banked on the heroics of Kiefer Ravena in overtime.

Ravena, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the 2nd Nokia Invitational Cup in Cebu City recently, erupted for seven of his game-high 25 points in the extra period while Team Pilipinas held the hot-shooting Japanese to a single basket down the stretch.

The son of former PBA Rookie of the Year, Bong, also had five rebounds and two assists to make up for the absence of Cederick Labing-isa who sustained a suspected MCL in the opening minutes of the game.

Labing-isa, a gutsy point guard from University of Santo Tomas, is no longer expected to play in this week-long tourney that serves as the gateway to the 2010 Fiba U-17 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany.

He was immediately taken to the nearby Hospital Sultana Aminah for treatment.

“We are a quick team because of him. He will be a big loss, but his health is our top priority,” Eric Altamirano said. “Good thing Kiefer stepped up. He willed it. He carried us through when we needed a leader.”

“But it was our defense that gave us this win. We took away their shooting and rebounding in the second half and limited them to only three field goals in overtime.”

The scores:
RP 64 — Ravena 25, Romero 9, Teng 7, Tolomia 5, Sara 5, Ferrer 5, Pessumal 4, Alolino 4, Labing-isa 0, Javillonar 0, Bantayan 0, Pate 0.
Japan 59 — Uehara 15, Tawatari 15, Hareyama 14, Tanaka 6, Tano 6, Yamamoto 2, Fujii 1, Hashimoto 0, Aratani 0, Komatsu 0, Kamiyama 0, Shishikura 0.
Quarters: 19-23, 36-38, 50-50, 64-59