Told by their coach that they still needed to win two more games to finish in the top two of the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations, the Beermen responded by tearing Air21 apart Friday night, 96-89, as San Miguel cemented its hold on one of those spots at the Araneta Coliseum.

Jay Washington scored 18 points, Arwind Santos has 17 and Danny Seigle came off the bench to hit 15 as the Beermen broke away in the fourth period to win for the ninth time in 10 games with Agustin and 10th overall in 12 contests.

And that would be enough for the Beermen to take it easy the rest of the way and still get a twice-to-beat incentive in the quarterfinals against either the seventh- or eighth-seeded squad.

“That’s what I told them before the game, that we still needed to win two more games,” Agustin admitted during the customary winning coach’s interview. “That’s why they were so fired up all night.

“And I am proud of the effort they showed,” added Agustin.

Air21 got a career-high 31 points and 13 rebounds from rookie Rabeh Al-Hussaini, but the Beermen bottled up his supporting cast, holding Ronjay Buenafe to just 12 points and Wesley Gonzales to just five.

The Express dropped to 4-7, still inside the circle of eight teams that would advance to the playoffs but just one game up on the ninth-running Powerade Tigers with both squads having three games remaining in their respective elimination round schedules.

Talk ‘N Text, meanwhile, climbed into a second place tie with idle Barangay Ginebra earlier in the night after nipping Barako Bull, 106-102.

The Tropang Texters rose to 7-3 after getting 33 points and 10 rebounds from Jimmy Alapag, who stood head and shoulders above everyone else in a game Talk ‘N Text didn’t play any defense at all.

“Jimmy carried the team,” substitute coach Nash Racela said. “He did so, especially during the times that we struggled and Barako Bull was controlling the game.” Ryan Reyes scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half and Jared Dillinger added 11 for the Texters like Harvey Carey as the squad split its two games with Kelly Williams and coach Chot Reyes on loan to national team chores in the Guangzhou Asian Games.

Reed Juntilla scored 28 points and was the reason why the Energy Boosters controlled the game, hitting 25 of those in the first three periods as Barako Bull took a 79-76 lead.

Talk ‘N Text did not play defense at all, as evidenced by the output of the league’s lowliest team.

Coming into their game, the Boosters were averaging just 78 points a contest and Barako Bull already eclipsed that after the third period.

The Boosters actually held a 90-86 lead after a triple by rookie Jim Viray with 8:02 left before the Texters scored nine unanswered points for a 95-90 lead they never lost.

And when the Boosters tried to make one final run at them, Alapag carried the Texters on his shoulders, shooting six of their last nine points to close out the contest, with the other three points he made possible by dishing off to Larry Fonacier for a triple.

It was not a pretty win by Talk ‘N Text’s standards and the game followed pretty much the same path as their first round collision where the Texters barely survived the Boosters, 84-83.

Juntilla scored 13 points in the third period alone, including back-to-back triples to open up the second half that touched off a mild Barako Bull spurt for a 62-59 lead after less than five minutes gone in the third.

And Talk ‘N Text played catch-up from there with Alapag proving up to the task as he matched Juntilla’s effort, capping his night with three free throws inside the final 10.2 seconds to put the game to bed for the Texters.