Certainly, a team like Talk ’N Text going for the highest team achievement won’t easily crumble and fall off. After disappointments were shed, and getting a verbal lashing from its coach about manhood, the feared Talk ’N Text ball club resurfaced.

Talk ’N Text came back flaming after an abysmal first half, unleashing a decisive run bridging the third and fourth quarters and bringing the championship series back to where it started in a one-sided 103-85 victory over Petron, a match that nearly broke out of control Wednesday night at the Mindanao Civic Center Gymnasium in Tubod, Lanao del Norte.

The game that began ugly – literally – ended with a flourish for Texters, who have finally rediscovered how to massacre an opponent after getting the shock of their lives in Game 1 Sunday night on a buzzer-beating baseline jumper from Danny Ildefonso (89-88).

Now, they’re back. And that only means trouble for the Boosters.

Jayson Castro pumped up a lifeless Talk ’N Text team in the third quarter and finished with 24 points, Scottie Reynolds bounced back from a four-point effort in Game 1 to score 18 this time, and Larry Fonacier made sure there won’t be any miraculous comeback this time for the Boosters by knocking down eight straight points in the fourth quarter and ended up with 13 as the Texters levelled the best-of-seven series at 1-1.

“The one thing we wanted to do here was to come out with a lot of physicality because they’re really beating us. They’re giving us really hard, rough fouls and you saw it again today,” said TNT coach Chot Reyes. “At halftime, I asked the players if they’re scared because we’re not going to win this series playing like sissies. At the second half, we became stronger. We took it right through them because this is a war.

“If they’re going to throw cheap shots at us we’re going to give it right back at them. We should hit them harder. That’s the way it’s going to be.” It definitely was a huge step toward their mission of accomplishing a Grand Slam.

Talk ’N Text started out flat, dropped behind by as many as 40-28 before things went totally ugly.

A free-for-all after Castro absorbed a hard foul – a flagrant one — from Alex Cabagnot nearly erupted with 3:12 in the second quarter.

Mark Yee, best remembered in Game 1 for squeezing Anthony Grunday’s behind, rushed to where Castro slumped – right in front of the Petron bench – and traded verbal barbs with Jojo Duncil, a referee, assistant team manager Hector Calma and the league’s media bureau chief, Willie Marcial.

Ali Peek also stepped into the scene by trying to push away by himself a phalanx of Petron players and then traded trash talks with Grundy.

When the smoke of the heat had cleared, Yee and Duncil were thrown out for provocations with a fighting stance, and Peek was likewise ejected for his second technical for trash talking. Peek had earlier committed a ‘T’ against Salvacion.

Calma, who as a player was never known to have engaged in a fight, was also penalized with a technical foul.

Before the incident occurred, Ranidel de Ocampo suffered a cut above his head in the first quarter and had to be go back into the locker room for treatment. He absorbed a hit from Mick Pennisi and returned to the floor late in the second period.

In the end, though, it was the team that wanted it more, and the squad that had the depth, came out triumphant.

The Texters outscored the Boosters, 30-17, in the third period, turning a 48-41 deficit into a 71-65 lead. When the final quarter commenced, Talk ‘N Text scored the first 12 points to make it an 83-65 ball game.

But Petron was still in striking distance when it was trailing 93-80, perhaps thinking that it could once more pull off a repeat comeback just like in Game 1 when the Boosters rallied from a nine-point deficit with more than three minutes remaining in the game.

They were wrong.

Fonacier hit a three, and then another three, before capping his assault with a floater that made it a 99-80 contest with 3:08 left to play.

Kelly Williams and Jimmy Alapag each added 12 points for Talk ‘N Text.

Arwind Santos scored 24 points in the first half alone to lead Petron with 29, while Grundy had 23 points.

In a related development, a tight race is expected to develop for the MVP this season.

B-Meg’s Joe Devance is pacing the statistical points (SPs) race, but everything will fall on whether which player acquires the most number of votes.

Devance, released by the Alaska Aces before the start of the season-ending Governors’ Cup for JR Reyes, has accumulated 31.89 SPs, leading Santos by merely .80 SPs.

Sol Mercado of Meralco managed to squeeze his way into third spot with 29.41 SPs, while jay Washington, who three weeks back underwent surgery in his foot and hasn’t seen action in the ongoing tournament, is at fourth with 28.25 SPs.

James Yap, the two-time MVP of the Llamados, is running fifth with 28.17 SPs.

The MVP for the season will be known on Sunday prior to the start of Game 4 of the best-of-seven title series.