Talk ‘N Text got some measure of revenge on San Miguel Beer.

The Tropang Texters eliminated the Beermen from further contention on Wednesday night after dealing San Miguel a 113-93 plastering in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, grabbing a piece of the lead at the same time at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Ivan Johnson scored 41 points and plucked down 19 rebounds, spearheading a swashbuckling second half charge by the Tropang Texters, who pulled in step with idle defending champion Purefoods for the lead at 7-3.

The victory also made the Texters as the executioners of the Beermen, who have struggled all tournament long despite coming off a championship run in the Philippine Cup.

That title win by San Miguel was made possible by a sweep in the Final Four of the Texters, and though coach Jong Uichico wouldn’t admit it later on, everyone was pretty sure that he had that at the back of his mind.

Climbing to a share of the lead with the Star Hotshots guaranteed that Talk ‘N Text will – like Purefoods – come into the quarterfinals in the upper half of the draw, meaning that the Texters will play in a best-of-three series at the very least.

Qualifying No. 7 or 8 would mean that the team would have to beat either No. 1 or 2 two straight times to stay alive.

Johnson scored 26 points in the middle two quarters and instigated the Talk ‘N Text breakaway as the Texters zoomed to leads of as large as 28.

Talk ‘N Text shot 32 points in the third period built around a 12-of-24 clip from the field. The Beermen did themselves in by making just 6-of-27 field goal tries in that stretch.

San Miguel dropped to 3-7 overall and even a win against Globalport to close out its elimination round assignment would not do the Beermen any good.

Rookie Matt Ganuelas-Rosser sustained his fiery form coming off the All-Star break, shooting a career-high 22 to backstop Johnson even as Ranidel De Ocampo and Larry Fonacier finished in twin digits which made up for the cold offensive night turned in by Jason Castro.

“Yeah,” Talk ‘N Text coach Jong Uichico said when someone pointed out that they had a very impressive outing. “It just means that we were able to sustain the level of energy and intensity that we had last Saturday, even though we lost that one.”

Talk ‘N Text came into the game still licking the wounds of a 118-117 triple overtime loss to Purefoods in Davao, a game that clearly got away from the Texters.

“They simply knew how important this game is for us,” Uichico continued.

Arizona Reid paced San Miguel with 32 points and June Mar Fajardo added 20.

Arwind Santos, the MVP last season, also left the game early in the fourth quarter to attend to his mother, who collapsed at ringside late in the third quarter and the Texters already leading by 18.

Meanwhile, Al Thornton again came up with his second half heroics for NLEX earlier in the night as the Road Warriors ripped PJ Ramos and KIA Motors, 102-86.

It was the fifth straight victory for the Road Warriors, who rose to 6-4 overall and would need to win their last game for safe passage into the upper half of the draw.

Thornton fired 33 points, 25 of them coming in the final two periods, with five locals led by Jonas Villanueva’s 20 turning in double digits.

Ramos, the 7-foot-3 Puerto Rican behemoth, fired 41 points and grabbed 23 rebounds but got little help from his local crew as the Carnival stumbled to their sixth loss in 10 games to be out of the playoff picture at the moment.

No KIA local scored more than eight points.

“That was our game plan, to not let Ramos get local support,” NLEX coach Boyet Fernandez said. “It wouldn’t have been executed if not for the effort of my players.”