Yap guides B-Meg to victory and 3-2 lead

They don’t call him ‘Big Game James’ for nothing.
Shut down the previous game, James Yap last night lit up the scoreboard and drained 30 points to lead B-Meg to an 82-66 victory over Talk ‘N Text and a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven series for the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Denzel Bowles was also spectacular and the tandem completed a night of personal redemption by doing the most damage on the defending champion Tropang Texters before more than 15,000 screaming souls at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Bowles, who shot just 17 points in Game 4, finished with 28 and 18 rebounds last night as he and Yap were the only ones in twin digits for the Llamados, whose hard-nosed defensive effort all night held the Texters to their lowest output in seven seasons. “In a situation like this one, you can’t be discouraged, you can’t second-guess yourself,” Yap said in Filipino after he was reminded of his 14-point Game 4. “I expect them (Texters) to study me defensively.
“But this is the Finals, and I am willing to give it my all no matter how physical the game becomes,” added Yap. “There are times that you can’t score, but there are other ways to help the team. It just so happened that I scored big tonight.”
From a 59-53 advantage at the end of the third period, the Llamados let it all hang out on both ends at the start of the fourth as they held the Texters to just three three-point shots in the first seven minutes to break the game open.
Bowles had six points and Yap five in a telling 16-9 spurt that had the Llamados opening up a 75-62 lead entering the final 3:23.
And now within another win of annexing his first title as a PBA coach for a team other than Alaska, Tim Cone is left wondering if his squad still has something left for one more push – the most important push of all.
“It took a tremendous effort by us to win tonight. I hope we have another one left in us,” Cone told reporters immediately after the game. “We gave our absolute all to win this game tonight.
“The pressure is on the team with three wins to close out the series, especially against a great team like Talk ‘N Text,” he continued. “I hope we have another effort like that, and that Denzel has another, and James has another.”
And after Cone talked about the game ahead, the potential clincher on Friday, Reyes felt that they had nothing left in the match that just finished.
“They played tremendous defense, we just couldn’t get untracked and we were lucky to have scored 66,” Reyes said. “Our defense wasn’t bad, we gave up 82 points. Our offense was just off the mark.
“I have to do a better job preparing the guys, because today, it was evident that they weren’t ready to play,” he said. “I think we don’t have anything left in our gas tank. As a coach, I need to sense if we have anything left in our tank.
“We really need to think hard about our desire to win the series.”
Yap capped off that deciding sequence with a three-point play off Larry Fonacier and when the Texters made one last effort to creep closer courtesy of a Donnell Harvey slam with 3:01 left for 75-64, it was Bowles who finished off Talk ‘N Text.
Thoroughly outplayed by Harvey in Game 4, Bowles took it strong to the hoop and fished a foul to boot from his Talk ‘N Text counterpart, completing the three-point play that made it 78-64 which made Reyes pull out his first stringers one after the other.