MANILA: The defensive team just got defended.
Talk 'N Text held Alaska without a bucket for more than five minutes during the most critical times in the stretch last night to pound out a 100-98 Game 4 victory that put their best-of-seven championship series for the Philippine Cup back to square one at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Tropang Texters bottled up the Alaska guns when they had to while making the shots that told as they won for the second straight night and will obviously have momentum going into the crucial fifth game tomorrow at the Cuneta Astrodome.
"The way we look at it now, defense is keying our victories," Talk 'N Text coach Chot Reyes said. "It has been a battle of attrition This game was a perfect example. We've gotten it to where we want it (tied) by making it a series again.
"Friday (tomorrow's Game 5) will be a matter of who has gas left."
Talk ’N Text scored this much for the first time in the series, and for the second straight game, Alaska failed to hit 100 points despite hitting 54 points in a first half shootout which the Texters took by two.
Jimmy Alapag ran berserk in the third period and went on to lead Talk 'N Text with 20 points built around a 4-of-8 clip from three-point zone. And not only that, the pint-sized point guard also held the Texters together when the going was at its roughest.
Mac Cardona, just hours after losing the Best Player of the Conference award to Alaska's Willie Miller, scattered 18 points, 13 of them in the first half, even as four others chipped in 10 points or more for Reyes.
Rookie Jared Dillinger was the fifth Texter in twin digits, notching his 11th and 12th points from free throws off a duty foul by Tony dela Cruz with 6.4 seconds left which sealed the deal, 100-96.
Before that, another greenhorn, Jason Castro, split his free throws with 18.8 seconds left for a 98-93 lead, which the Aces threatened after Sonny Thoss completed a three-point play off Castro with 8.3 seconds left. Castro, the third overall choice in the Draft, finished with 10 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Texters.
Alaska came into this series as the tournament's top defensive team. The Aces won the first two games by playing both offense and defense with great effect, but not last night when a victory could have more or less wrapped up the championship.
Talk 'N Text led by just 89-88 after a Jeffrey Cariaso triple for Alaska with 6:51 left. But the next points for the Aces came from Miller at the free throw line with 1:33, or after Ali Peek hit a jumper and Harvey Carey two baskets that made it 95-88.
The Talk 'N Text defense also held LA Tenorio to just eight points as the Alaska spitfire has struggled big time in the last two games. In Game 3, Tenorio, after shooting a career-high 27 in the series opener and 17 in Game 2, was held scoreless.
Joe Devance led Alaska with 24 points and Miller, in his finest offensive game thus far in the series, had 21, but scored just six in the second half as Talk 'N Text ganged up on him at almost every opportunity.
"There are not going to be any secrets anymore (for the remainder of the series)," Reyes added. "There won't be surprises from both of us (coaches). It will be a battle of wills and which team wants it more."
Miller, meanwhile, won the Best Player award handily over the Talk 'N Text scorer Cardona, receiving the trophy in simple rites before tip-off after getting 533 points from the covering media, 21 votes from his fellow players, 300 from Solar sports and 150 points from the league to go with his 299 statistical points for a 1,443-point tally.
Cardona was good for only 870 points, even as Coca-Cola center Asi Taulava, the statistical points race leader whose team got knocked out in the wildcard, tallied 470 points.
Kelly Williams, the reigning MVP from Sta. Lucia, had 439 total points. The fifth candidate for the plum, Jay-Jay Helterbrand, Barangay Ginebra's starting point guard, brought up the rear with 359 points.
Miller, the product of Letran in the NCAA whose first professional stint was in the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association, was third in the statistical points derby with a 31.6-point average, with Cardona in fourth just a shade behind. Cardona lost despite being the tournament's leading scorer with close to 23 points a contest, a breakout tournament, indeed, for the former La Salle ace in the UAAP whose game's downside had always been his turnovers.
