Talk ’N Text survived  going scoreless in the final 3:17, with a 76-75 victory over Alaska at the Araneta Coliseum virtually giving the Texters the first outright semifinal  seat with still three games left in their schedule.

“The good thing about it is that we won a defensive struggle,” Talk ’N Text coach Chot Reyes said. “We proved to ourselves that we could win by making stops when it mattered.  And the important thing is we didn’t panic.”

Alaska held the usually prolific Talk ‘N Text roster to minimal numbers with the 12 points of Ryan Reyes going on to lead the squad. Only three players scored in twin digits for Reyes, quite unusual for a team that had blown its prior 11 foes off the floor by its sheer offensive might.

The Aces almost pulled off what most of the teams didn’t even come close to doing in the last two months as they had a chance to win the game by taking possession in the final 20 seconds only to flub two makeable attempts inside the final eight ticks.

Jimmy Alapag hit two critical triples inside a 10-0 Talk ’N Text run that turned a 66-70 deficit into a 76-70 lead heading into the final 3:17 which made it look like the Texters would again run away with this one until Alaska made one final push.

The Aces, who were held scoreless for close to four minutes while the Texters dropped that bomb, hit five straight points to snap out of that spell courtesy of a Cyrus Baguio triple and two Diamon Simpson free throws to narrow the gap to what it was at the final buzzer.

Talk ‘N Text inbounded with 24.1 seconds left coming out of a timeout, but Alapag was lured into a trap by the Aces and the wily point guard lost the ball to Jeffrey Cariaso as Alaska gained the chance to come up with a game-winning play.

But Cariaso, who had announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season, narrowly missed a 16-foot jumper. And when the Aces kept possession after Shawn Daniels failed to clear the rebound for the Texters with 1.5 seconds left, Alaska sued for time for another play.

Joe Devance then missed an open three-pointer at the buzzer to doom the Aces.

At 13-2, the Texters are now a full game clear of second-running San Miguel in the race for the No. 1 spot, and curiously enough, both squads clash in a road game set in Victorias City in Negros Occidental on Saturday.

That match will be for nothing less than top ranking and the first Final Four seat and if the Texters don’t win that, they could also hope for a Derby Ace loss in the remainder of the elimination round to still get to the semifinals outright.

“Our problem right now is how to get ready for San Miguel because my players are really, really tired at this point,” Reyes added after playing his second game in five days counting that 92-84 victory over Barangay Ginebra in Lipa City.

“There’s no question that we are still going to push ourselves really hard (against San Miguel),” he continued. “The desire will still be there. I just don’t know if we can still physically do it.”

Simpson led the Aces with 30 points, 19 rebounds, three assists and three blocks in a sterling effort that has clearly made him the yardstick among imports in this tournament.

Baguio added 13 and Devance 10 in the low-scoring contest for the Aces.

Meanwhile, the crowd-darling Gin Kings erased a 12-point second quarter deficit against Barako Coffee with ease before going on to post a 107-86 victory in the first game.

The Kings got the spark they needed from Mark Caguioa coming off the bench as the prolific swingman shot 12 of his 19 points in the second quarter that had the Kings coming back from 11-23 down in the first period.

Ginebra improved to 9-6 and would need no less than a sweep of its remaining three games and losses on San Miguel in order to stay in the hunt for an outright Final Four berth.

The Coffee Masters have more or less bowed out of contention after sliding to 2-13.