MANILA: Barangay Ginebra is in a do-or-die game - after playing just 11 minutes.

Talk ‘N Text walked out of its crucial Game 4 tussle with the Gin Kings with a minute left in the first quarter Friday night, handing Ginebra the Philippine Cup quarterfinal series-tying win on a silver platter that set up a rubber match Sunday also at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Darkhorse Rain or Shine didn’t need Purefoods to walk out later in the night and hammered out a 103-100 victory that also knotted their separate series at 2-2 for a similar you-or-me contest Sunday.

Ginebra didn’t need to play 48 hard minutes to take their best-of-five series to a deciding fifth game as what Talk ‘N Text saw as spotty officiating right from the start of the series forced team management to order the walkout.

The defending champion Texters will automatically be fined P500,000 for their actions, which was apparently ordered by top executives of the company who watched the game at ringside.

No team since the 1990 Anejo squad, then coached by Robert Jaworski, has ever walked out of a game before. Jaworski ordered the walkout in Game 6 of their title series against Shell for the Open Conference title.

Anejo was fined P500,000 for doing that, the same amount in penalties that was slapped on Red Bull and Yeng Guiao, who also threatened to walk out Game 4 of their 2006 Philippine Cup series against San Miguel. Red Bull, though, returned to the floor after two technical fouls.

In several television replays, coach Chot Reyes was seen seeking approval from team executives who were seated a few rows above court level behind the Talk ‘N Text bench.

The walkout was triggered by a Flagrant Foul 2 called on Ranidel de Ocampo on a driving Ronald Tubid for the Texters’ ninth team foul in the first 11 minutes of the first period. The incident happened with the score pegged at 27-20 in favor of the Kings.

After the call for the Flagrant Foul 2 infraction was made official by the referees, the entire Talk ‘N Text bench raised a howl and it didn’t take long for Reyes to signal his players to head straight to the dugout with team owner Manny V. Pangilinan right behind them.

“A team can only take so much,” said Reyes as he lambasted referees for making De Ocampo’s foul an FF2 violation, which merits an automatic ejection and a suspension in the team’s immediate next game.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the disparity in the calls,” Reyes added.

“How far can you push a team and a company such as ours to accept what is wrong and what is not fair,” asked Ricky Vargas, Talk ‘N Text’s representative to the PBA Board of Governors and past chairman.

“My hangganan ang lahat. We cannot accept this anymore It’s already an insult.” “We’ll take any win as it is,” said Ginebra coach Jong Uichico. “We came out here to win and the easier for us to get it the better. They’re playing a mind game thinking that they can get away with this so they could change the referees’ calls for Sunday’s game.” But Uichico said the walkout hardly affected his outlook on the series. “We still have a game on Sunday. It would have been better if this was the clincher.” It is not sure, though, whether the Texters will show up for Game 5 at all after Vargas said that they have not yet decided on what to do. Team officials will appear before commissioner Sonny Barrios at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“It became a Flagrant Foul 2 because the elbow (that hit Tubid) was above the shoulder and that’s basically why it was judged an F2,” said Barrios.

Television replays, though, clearly showed that it was Tubid who charged into De Ocampo’s elbow while going for a hard drive. De Ocampo also did not look like he leaned into Tubid while the Ginebra guard made his move.

Aside from the automatic suspension, De Ocampo also will be slapped a minimum P20,000 fine.

This is the second time in this tournament that the Texters have been involved in a controversy.

San Miguel had also protested the Tropang Texters’ 99-97 victory in a road game in Zamboanga City because the game was delayed for an hour after Talk ‘N Text failed to bring the correct set of uniforms. Talk ‘N Text was fined P500,000 for the infraction.

Solomon Mercado scored 24 points and had eight assists to lead the Elasto Painters, while Kerby Raymundo, after sitting out Game 3 because of a knee injury, tossed in 34 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Tender Juicy Giants.