Gilas Pilipinas captain Kiefer Ravena admitted that he had his share of shortcomings as the team’s leader after the nationals failed to reach the quarterfinals of the FIBA Asia Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Gilas was sent packing by Japan in the qualifying round after absorbing a tough 102-81 loss. The Filipinos only won once in the tournament which came at the expense of India while New Zealand and Lebanon also handily beat Gilas during its group stage encounters.

“First of all I felt like I let the team down by not being the leader that they expected. Maraming pagkukulang, there's a lot of shortcomings being the leader,” said Ravena who averaged 10 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists per outing.

Taking the daunting task of leading a young Gilas crew, most of whom came straight from the collegiate scene, Ravena admitted that he himself is still trying to learn on how to lead the team especially in trying times.

The Japan B.League import tried to carry the fight for the Filipinos in their last two losses against the Tall Blacks and the Akatsuki Five, finishing with 17 and 15 points, respectively, after having just eight points in Gilas’ first two games.

Nonetheless, Ravena added that he and the rest of the national team are taking the loss as a lesson as they hope to use the experience in future tournaments.

“It comes with experience, as well. I'm still learning from them, like coach said, this is all our first FIBA Asia cup, I'm not here to make any excuses,” said Ravena.

“I just told them that this is for the long haul whether we play in Japan, in the PBA, in Korea or wherever our careers take us, this is something that we have to really embrace, take it to heart and take it personally that what happened here is something that can make us better,” he added.