MANILA: Jong Uichico on Saturday night grappled for words to say about Jason Castro, because he too, was astounded at his own point guard.

With the game on the line for the third straight night, Castro dominated Purefoods at the crunch and towed the Tropang Texters to a 79-66 victory that put Talk 'N Text in the Finals of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

“He has evolved into a great player,” was what Uichico said when asked to talk about the 6-foot Castro, who finished with a career-high-tying 33 points built on a 7-for-11 clip from three-point range.

“Jason is just Jason,” Uichico said.

It was the third straight victory for the Texters and the third straight game that Castro played hero as Talk 'N Text, after losing the series opener because of a bum start, took the Star Hotshots’ second of three titles away.

Up next for the Texters will be Rain or Shine, which swept Meralco in their side of the best-of-five semifinals last Monday.

Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series will be on Wednesday at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

Castro hit 13 points in the fourth quarter and 23 for the second half in total as he fell just five points shy of matching what Purefoods was able to score in that same span.

He hit 10 of the Texters 12 points when they broke away from a 62-59 game, and had a hand in the only other basket during that run when he fed Jay Washington for a jumper from the left corner.

Purefoods coach Tim Cone practically tried his entire rotation in an effort to neutralize Castro, who ran rings around the defenses of James Yap, Marc Pingris and Mark Barroca in the second half.

“He makes things easier for the team,” Uichico said. “And he gives the opposing teams problems (on defense), which is a good thing for us.”

Talk 'N Text was able to close out the series, 3-1, despite tallying its lowest scoring output of the conference.

Purefoods, on the other hand, was held down to its conference-low, which was just a point better than its season-worst of 65 the Hotshots scored in bowing out of the Philippine Cup against Meralco in the quarterfinals.

Ivan Johnson was the other player who stepped up big for Uichico in the stretch, shooting five straight points that had the Texters erasing a 56-59 deficit to go ahead to stay, 62-59, going into the final 6:25.

Purefoods, which completed just the league’s fifth Grand Slam last season after conquering Talk 'N Text in a series in all three conferences, now just has one title left to defend for the year, the Governors’ Cup, which starts on May 5.

Denzel Bowles, the Purefoods import who came into the game averaging 41 points a contest, felt the brunt of the suffocating Talk 'N Text defense the fullest on Saturday, held down to just 14 points and unable to do anything when the Texters broke away.

Mark Barroca fired 12 points and Joe Devance 10 for the Hotshots, who drew just a combined eight points from usual heavy scorers James Yap and Peter June Simon.

“It was a tough series,” Uichico said. “The games were won only in the stretch.”

Johnson also had 15 rebounds as Talk ‘N Text dominated the rebounding department, 49-42.

It seemed like Purefoods was poised to take the series to the distance after opening up several 10-point leads, the last coming at the end of the first half after holding the Texters to just 28 in the first two quarters.

And just like he did in the previous two games, Castro came out of the halftime break and sparked the Texters.

In Game 2, the fleet-footed national team guard hit his last seven three-point attempts for a 111-107 victory.