MANILA: Meralco is not the second-best defensive team in the PBA Governors’ Cup for nothing.

The Bolts shut down sister squad Talk 'N Text on Tuesday night and chalked up their first winning streak in the season-ending conference, with a 119-85 shellacking of the Tropang Texters also giving the Meralco franchise its biggest-ever margin of victory.

Andre Emmet scored 20 points in the first half alone and Sean Anthony finished with 24, but the biggest story of the game was the fact that the Meralco defense scuttled the high-profile offensive armada of Talk 'N Text all game at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

Meralco thus rose to 4-3 overall and climbed into the upper half of the standings, moving one victory away from clinching a playoff berth while leaving the Tropang Texters pondering on what went wrong.

Emmet finished with 36 points, and his willingness to share the ball for the second straight game did not escape the attention of head coach Norman Black, who asked his charges before the game to establish a personality for the conference.

“We knew coming into the game that we were No. 2 on defense,” Black told reporters shortly after dropping the Texters to a level 3-3 record. “We wanted to find a personality, and being a great defensive team is a personality that we want.”

Anthony also grabbed 12 rebounds in what Black described as the hard-working Fil-Am’s best career game. Three more locals scored in twin digits for the Bolts, who have the Alaska Aces as their next foes.

Incidentally, Alaska will be coming into that game with a deflated morale after bungling a 13-point third quarter lead to go down, 113-102, to NLEX in the first game.

Kwame Alexander, whose replacement arrived just a day before, earned an extension to his PBA career after shooting 28 points and grabbing 12 rebounds as the Road Warriors put an end to a two-game slide to improve to 2-4.

Michael Madanly, the hotshot Syrian who has been injured in the first five NLEX games, shot 22 of his 28 points in the first half and helped the Road Warriors play with command.

The loss, just the second in six games for the Aces, was particularly a bitter one to swallow for Alaska, which erased an early double-digit deficit with a hot third quarter start only to sputter in the stretch.

Romeo Travis tossed in 31 points and Cyrus Baguio added 23 for the Aces.

Alaska scored just 10 points in the last eight minutes and lost by a huge margin as its nucleus ran out of steam after playing catch-up in the first half and ushering the Aces to a 75-62 lead.

“I am just happy that we got this one,” NLEX coach Boyet Fernandez opened up, before divulging that former Barako Bull reinforcement Joshua Dollard had planed in for Alexander on Monday night.

“This (win) gives us a morale boost going up against San Miguel Beer,” Fernandez added.

Fernandez said that they considered giving Alexander his walking papers after taking outside attempts in the stretch of a narrow loss to the Texters last week.

But on Tuesday night, Alexander did nothing but attack the basket, shooting nine of his total in the fourth period, including seven in an 11-5 burst that had the Road Warriors taking the lead for good, 99-94, with just under five minutes left.

Dollard, who led the Commissioner’s Cup last year in scoring with just a shade under 33 points a game, would have suited up had he gained release from his old team before the game.

But that hitch allowed Alexander to show his stuff again and make everyone in the coaching staff and management reconsider their stand,

“For sure, he gave himself another chance with that performance,” Fernandez said. “It would be tough replacing someone who played like that.”