MANILA: The sleeping giant awoke in a huge way.
Talk ‘N Text, with its mind set on winning again, ripped Coca-Cola apart in the fourth quarter last night to coast to a 133-111 victory at the Cuneta Astrodome as the Tropang Texters not only won for the first time but served notice of how strong they are in the Fiesta Cup.
Though one would marvel at how huge the winning margin was against the formidable Tigers, coach Chot Reyes didn’t talk like he was that impressed at all, still calling for his team to play some defense while adding that his boys were still out of shape.
“I’m worried that we have to score 130 points to win this game,” Reyes, who just four weeks ago won the Philippine Cup, said. “We scored 121 against Purefoods (in our first game) and we still lost. “We got to find a way to play better defense.”
Talk ‘N Text is one of the fancied sides in the season-ending tournament, but the Texters started out with a whimper, showing just flashes of the form that won them the Philippine Cup in the first two weeks of the conference.
Reyes said he expected his team to lose its first two outings, for they, after all, came into this tournament with just one week to prepare after celebrating their Philippine Cup triumph over Alaska . Had they lost last night’s game, there wouldn’t have been an excuse for them.
“Coming into today, I felt that we had a better chance because we had one week of practice from our last game before this one,” Reyes told scribes. “We’re still far from the shape we want to be, though. And we’re still cramming to get back in shape.” Tiras Wade, Talk ‘N Text braided-haired import, scored 38 points and had 14 rebounds, and Jimmy Alapag added 25 and six assists to pace the Texters, who tied the Tigers at 1-2.
Only center Yancy De Ocampo, from among 11 men used by Reyes, failed to score for the game and only two men did not contribute offensively for the Texters in their 44-point fourth quarter.
From an 89-87 lead at the end of the third, the Texters held the Tigers without a bucket in the first three minutes of the fourth period to zoom to an 97-87 lead before padding this to 109-93 after an Alapag triple with 6:47 left to play.
It was all she wrote for the Tigers after that as import JJ Sullinger was held to just three points in the fourth period. Sullinger still paced the team with 32, while Alex Cabagnot and Asi Taulava added 18 each.
Sta. Lucia grabbed a piece of second place later in the night and inflicted a second straight defeat on defending champion Barangay Ginebra after an 80-76 victory.
Anthony Johnson, in a high-profile collision with Rod Nealy, scattered 30 points and had 12 rebounds, totally outplaying his Ginebra counterpart as the Realtors won for the second straight night and improved to 2-1.
The loss put Ginebra in the company of the Tigers and the Texters after Nealy scored just 18 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and issued five assists before fouling out.
That performance was a far cry from his averages of 34 points and 21.5 rebounds in the Kings’ first two games, which they split.
Ginebra lost despite getting a lot of calls go its way at the crunch, including two borderline infractions whistled against the Realtors which could have made the outcome a little bit more one-sided in favor of Sta. Lucia.
The Kings were in the lead for the last time at 72-71 after a Jay-Jay Helterbrand basket with 1:29 to go. The score was tied at 76 at the final 46.7-second mark after two Eric Menk free throws.
But Dennis Miranda broke that tie with a running jumper that beat the shot clock heading into the final 24.2 seconds before Menk committed a looseball foul on Marlou Aquino on the other end that sent the Sta. Lucia slotman to the free throw line.
Aquino made the front end of his charities with 8.6 seconds left for 79-76 before Rafi Reavis threw a wild pass that Ronald Tubid didn’t come close to catching to doom the Kings.
Miranda and Aquino finished with 13 points each, while Sunday Salvacion had 15 points for the Kings.
