It turned out that this one wasn’t even close at all.

The Tropang Texters broke away in the third period and then completely tore the Gin Kings to shreds in the fourth on the way to a 102-83 series-opening victory Wednesday night that clearly established who the boss is for the rest of the best-of-seven series.

A stunned Araneta Colizeum crowd that was pro-Ginebra was left wondering what went wrong to the Kings, who came into the third quarter with a one-point lead but found themselves trailing by 15 entering the final canto.

“The final score did not indicate how hard the game was,” said Reyes, who is seeking a second straight title for the PLDT franchise. “It was a huge struggle. Our defensive effort in the third quarter was the key.”

Talk ‘N Text even went on to build a 25-point lead after a Ryan Reyes triple made it 93-68 with time down to just 4:38.

Paul Harris scored 20 of his 26 points and had 15 rebounds to pace the Texters, who also got 19 from Reyes and 15 from Jason Castro, which more than made up for the lukewarm performance of starting point guard and National team candidate Jimmy Alapag

“All we did was we landed the first punch,” the outspoken Reyes added. “We have to prepare for their counter (punch). That’s how it is in every series.”

So dominant were the Texters that they practically did not feel the lack of Alapag’s contribution. The wily 5-foot-8 guard actually scored his first basket – a triple with 2:21 left in the third period – that extended Talk ‘N Text’s lead to 67-54.

It was actually a very physical series opener, as bodies flew and landed hard on the floor.

Mark Caguioa, who went on to lead all Ginebra shooters with 23, was even lucky to get away with just a Flagrant Foul 1 call late in the third quarter when he, while lying on the floor, intentionally tripped a fast-breaking Jason Castro.

A Flagrant Foul 2 call would have automatically ejected Caguioa out of the game and merited a one-game suspension.

Talk ‘N Text will gun for a 2-0 lead on Friday at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay.

“Whatever the reason is, whether they are fresh or we’re tired, it was a loss for us,” Ginebra coach Jong Uichico, obviously disappointed, said. “If we’re tired, we need to find a way to come up with more effort. We did the best we could but we had a bad shooting night.”

“Whether it was a one-point loss or a 20-point loss, it’s still (just) a loss,” added Uichico. “We have to do a better job on Friday. They did their homework (in stopping Nate Brumfield, the Ginebra import). We’ll try to do better in the next game.

Brumfiled typified the huge struggle that Ginebra had offensively, finishing with just 10 points after failing to solve Talk ‘N Text’s clamping inside defense.

The burly Ginebra import had to battle consistent double- and sometimes triple-teams and was held to a harmless 12 attempts from the floor. He made just three shots all night and 4-of-8 free throws.

Brumfield came into the contest averaging close to 29 points and 11 rebounds for the Kings. He owns the highest scoring game by anyone in the tournament – 45 points – chalked up in a scintillating semifinal game win over Smart-Gilas.

The Kings played their fifth straight game and showed signs of fatigue – and loss of composure – starting the third period.

Even Uichico got into the act of questioning calls. He was slapped with a technical foul for stepping into the playing area and was lucky to not have been ejected after physically contacting a referee during the Caguioa-Castro incident.