MANILA: With the game already in the bag, Arizona Reid left the game in San Miguel Beer’s last timeout with under a minute left and immediately got iced on some part of his body by team personnel.

Cooling down the San Miguel import was one thing that Talk ‘N Text couldn’t do in the final three quarters on Tuesday night as Reid led the Beermen to a 101-96 decision of the Tropang Texters for a twice-to-beat privilege in the first round of the PBA Governors’ Cup playoffs at the Araneta Coliseum.

Reid, who won the Best Import award while playing for Rain or Shine several years back, tossed in all but six of his 29 points in the final three frames as the Beermen won for the seventh straight time after two consecutive defeats.

That winning streak propelled the Beermen to one of the top four berths with still close to two weeks left in the elimination round while tying the season-high mark for the longest winning run the Elasto Painters pulled out in the Philippine Cup.

“AZ (Reid) led the team. He shouted at them (teammates) when we were down big (in the first half) and they responded,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria told reporters after his Beermen dropped the Tropang Texters to 3-5 overall.

San Miguel clawed back from 15 points down in the first period and from 32-15 at the start of the second behind Reid, who got all the help he needed from a star-studded local crew in the final three quarters.

Reid, who was sick in the first two San Miguel defeats, scored eight of his total in the fourth, including a pull-up jumper over Talk ‘N Text counterpart Steffphon Pettigree with 3:36 remaining that ushered the Beermen to a 83-84 lead.

Alex Cabagnot drilled in five of his 11 points in the fourth, including a triple with 4:15 left that made it 91-81 even as three other locals tossed in 10 or more to make up for the lackluster offensive night that reigning MVP June Mar Fajardo had.

“With this win, I think we are already in the top four,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria said. “We needed this win to avoid any complications.”

Fajardo finished with just nine points and eight rebounds after being able to play just 21 minutes because of foul trouble.

Jason Castro paced the Texters with 25 points, seven assists and five rebounds but got minimal help from Pettigrew and Asian import Sam Daghles.

Pettigrew struggled to break free from the San Miguel defense inside and finished with just 17, eight in the second half, while Daghles, now obviously a couple of steps slower compared to his heyday with the Jordanian national team, had just eight points.

Talk ‘N Text’s fourth straight loss pushed the Texters hard against the wall, as they would need to practically sweep their remaining three games just to get into the playoffs.

Even then, Talk ‘N Text would be at a disadvantage as not finishing in the top four would require beating a higher-ranked foe two straight times to advance to the Final Four.

Alaska also moved on the verge of nailing a twice-to-beat privilege after holding off Meralco, 89-75, earlier in the day.

Romeo Travis scored 24 points and had 18 rebounds and led the well-disciplined Aces to their sixth win in eight matches, good for third at the moment.

Alaska led from start to finish as its defense held down Andre Emmet and Gary David as the Bolts dropped to 4-4 and remained a win shy of gaining playoff entry.

“I thought our guys were flying out there defensively today,” Alaska coach Alex Compton said. “We have the utmost respect for Andre (Emmet) and Gary (David) so we knew coming into this game that we needed to hold them down.”

Emmet still went away with 28 points despite the heavy pressure but David was starved to just 10. Alaska also took control early by allowing the first Meralco basket to come well after the first 6:00 mark.

Cyrus Baguio sat it out for the Aces because of a right ankle sprain but is expected to be back as Alaska closes out its elimination round stint against league-leading Barako Bull, the Beermen and Globalport.

“That’s a tough stretch for us,” Compton said.