Phone Pals one call away

The seesaw battle continued and Talk N Text strode to within a game of a first PBA championship last night.

The Phone Pals came out bristling from the halftime huddle and stormed to a 77-55 rout, gaining the pivotal 3-2 lead in the Samsung PBA Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven title playoff at the Araneta Coliseum.

"We caught Red Bull a little flat and I think the conditioning made the difference again. They spent their energy trying to stop our run in the fourth quarter the last time," said coach Bill Bayno as his Phone Pals moved within a heartbeat of the championship.

But Bayno cautioned his boys not to celebrate yet.

"This is a crazy series, no team is winning two in a row. This victory still doesn’t mean anything. We have to get up to a great challenge in Game Six because Red Bull can come back and beat us by 40 easily," Bayno said.

Bayno somehow was right they caught Red Bull flat. The Thunder played their worst game in the series — and probably the whole conference — ending with their lowest output now also the all-time lowest in a final, breaking the 59 of Alaska in a loss to Purefoods in Game One of the 2000 All-Filipino title series.

The Thunder actually kept pace with the Phone Pals in the first half before suffering a sudden breakdown offensively and defensively in the third quarter.

The Phone Pals watched practically as the Thunder threw bricks in the second half and cashed in on these to fashion out the blowout.

Sean Lampley scored only three points after scattering 14 in the first half while Julius Nwosu made only four the entire game in a big turnaround from his 27-point outing the last time.

The Phone Pals outscored Lampley, Nwosu and their teammates in the final half by 22 points, 47-25.

"Lampley suffered from jetlag. I knew it. You see that he struggled tonight. He had fresh legs in his first game," said Bayno.

Curiously, Nwosu played worse than Lampley. The Nigerian import struggled for only four points and five rebounds, and went into foul-trouble situation as early as the third quarter.

Picking up his fourth foul late in the third quarter, Nwosu was benched by coach Yeng Guiao with over five minutes left to play.

The Phone Pals ripped the game apart at 48-34 on a searing run from a 30-all deadlock at the half.

The Thunder managed to trim the deficit to 40-48 but the Phone Pals scampered away again at 55-40 at the end of the third quarter on a decisive seven-to-nothing attack highlighted by back-to-back treys by Jerald Honeycutt.

It was all Talk N Text show the whole fourth quarter.