The Aces on Wednesday night picked Talk ‘N Text apart, scoring a 90-81 Game 7 victory to make the finals of the PBA Fiesta Conference against another powerhouse side starting Friday night at the Araneta Coliseum.

Diamon Simpson scored 21 points and had nine rebounds and coach Tim Cone got five locals scoring 10 points or more as the Aces, after trailing 2-3 in the best-of-seven semifinal series, won the last two games to make a championship series for the second time this year.

Alaska actually started out hot again and led by as many as 18 points early in the third quarter and was poised to making this KO game a rout until the Tropang Texters made a mad run to close out the third period and prune the gap to just three.

But the Aces showed unparalleled composure, hitting timely baskets from inside and out as they slowly scooted away again to make the 25th finals appearance in their franchise and gun for a 14th crown.

Alaska, though, will literally not have the time to celebrate this win, with the best-of-seven series opposite San Miguel to start on Friday.

“I don’t believe that I will have to look at San Miguel’s tapes when I get home (tonight),” Cone, his voice hoarse after guiding the Aces to a second playoff series that went the distance, said. “I just don’t believe it.

“We were up by 18 (points in the third) and we were thinking: Can we really lose this thing,” Cone said. “And after that, boom, they came back. It was really hard for us to regroup. You have to give our guys some credit for staying calm through that storm.” The Aces’ under-rated local lineup upstaged its Talk ‘N Text counterpart – which has been the story for much of this series – with LA Tenorio, Cyrus Baguio and Larry Fonacier stepping up in critical stages of the fourth period.

Cramping up since the third period, Tenorio returned late in the contest to drill in a huge jumper with 45.5 seconds left that made it 85-79, totally dousing cold water on a hot Talk ‘N Text rally.

Baguio, meanwhile, played defense on Jimmy Alapag after that Tenorio basket and took the ball away from the driving Talk ‘N Text point guard in mid-air that resulted in two Joe Devance free throws on the other end for 87-79 with 34.5 seconds left.

Alaska’s four of the five Game 7 victories have come with the team down, 2-3 after five games, while all of Talk ‘N Text’s four Game 7 losses, counting this one, have come with the team flubbing commanding 3-2 leads.

The setback would certainly be a bitter pill to swallow for the Texters, who topped the elimination round with a 15-3 slate after winning 13 straight games at one point.

And most every team had feared the Texters, who acquired Kelly Williams and Ryan Reyes in a lopsided deal with Sta. Lucia in mid-stream.

History is not that kind for Alaska going into the title series, with the Aces having lost all of their last six Fiesta Conference games against San Miguel in the last three years.

Alaska won this tournament in 2007 by humbling San Miguel in double overtime of Game 6 that year, and that victory is the last Alaska win over the Beermen in this conference in the last three seasons.

Talk ‘N Text will look back at this series asking itself what would have been had the squad tapped Israeli League veteran Omar Sneed in place of the burly Shawn Daniels.

Sneed had been in the country for the last two weeks, ready to take the place of Daniels after the Texters had trailed, 1-3 in the series.

Daniels again stood out for the Texters Wednesday night with 19 points and 19 rebounds, but the locals again failed to deliver with only Mac Cardona and Ranidel De Ocampo finishing in twin digits with 16 and 15, respectively.