MANILA: Not even the best come-from-behind team in the KFC Philippine Cup could come back from this one.
Talk ‘N Text buried San Miguel so deep with an avalanche of baskets in the first three periods to coast to a 129-100 victory and a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven semifinal series last night at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Tropang Texters doubled up on the Beermen at the end of the first period, bloated this to 26 points at the half and reached the 100-point mark at the end of the third for a 35-point lead that proved to be more than safe.
San Miguel’s last two games prior to this one had the same complexion, when the Beermen lost Game 2 of their quarterfinal series to Barangay Ginebra, but not after wiping out an 18-point deficit and almost pulling it out in the end.
The Beermen, who made it this far by coming from as deep as the wild-card phase after finishing the eliminations ranked as the No. 6 team, then overhauled a 21-point third quarter disadvantage in the decider to advance to here.
But there were no miracles for them last night - not even a glimpse of one forthcoming.
Talk ‘N Text’s total was just one point shy of the highest winning score for the tournament, which went into double overtime, when the Beermen nipped Air21 in a protested elimination round game last year.
The Texters converted on 23 three-point attempts, tying the all-time record they set themselves against Air21 in the Fiesta Cup eliminations last season. They attempted a total of 42 times from that range for a 54.8-percent clip.
So in synch was Talk ‘N Text that its three-point total was just one shy of its two-point field goal conversions. The team also made 12 of 17 tries from the free throw line and dealt San Miguel its worst loss of the season.
Ren-Ren Ritualo paced the Texters with 24 points, Mac Cardona had 21 and Jimmy Alapag scattered 20 with three others scoring 10 or more for Reyes.
Jay Washington drained 29 points and had 13 rebounds for San Miguel, which also got 19 points and 11 boards from Mick Pennisi. Dondon Hontiveros, after shooting 69 points in the final two games of the quarterfinals, was good for only nine in their match.
Also taking a 1-0 lead was Alaska in the other semifinal pairing after the Aces broke away in the final nine minutes to take a 92-76 victory over defending champion Sta. Lucia in the first game.
And both winning coaches had the same thing to say: that their respective series will both start with tomorrow’s Game 2.
“I think the series starts now, and I am referring to the next game,” said Talk ‘N Text coach Chot Reyes later. “San Miguel was tired coming from the (Barangay) Ginebra (quarterfinal) series and we can be sure that in the next game, they will come back.”
“We’ll need to see how we bounce back for Game 2,” was what Alaska’s Tim Cone said.
“We have a long memory,” Cone said, recalling how Alaska also won the series-opener in their semifinal confrontation here last year before losing the series, 3-4. “We know we won Game 1 (last year) kind of easy and then lost Games 2 and 3.
“Our goal right now is to really come back and follow up this victory,” Cone added. “We need to be stronger mentally than in the last series (with Sta. Lucia).”
Joe Devance scored 17 points and Willie Miller scored 12 of his 14 points in the final two periods with Jeffrey Cariaso shooting six of his eight in the fourth quarter to fuel the Alaska breakaway in the final nine minutes.
Acquired through a trade with Rain or Shine at the start of the season, Devance scored 10 of his total in the third quarter and also finished with two blocks in starting out at the shooting forward spot.
“They (Realtors) missed some three-point shots (in the fourth period) and that made the game look a lot safer than it was,” Cone explained. “Had they made some of those shots, it would have been a battle till the end.”
