Texters play smart versus tall Beermen

SINGAPORE – Talk n Text outplayed the tall San Miguel team in the second half behind the exploits of its backcourt players and the Tropang Texters kept a perfect record on overseas outings with an 85-80 win in a game played before a huge cheering crowd of mostly overseas Filipino workers at the National Indoor Stadium here last night.

Jimmy Alapag, Jared Dillinger, Renren Ritualo and Macmac Cardona rose to the occasion, offsetting San Miguel’s domination off the boards as the Tropang Texters got back at the Beermen to move up to joint third in the KFC PBA Philippine Cup elimination round.

Avenging its 77-84 defeat to San Miguel in their previous tiff, Talk n Text caught up with Sta. Lucia and Rain or Shine at third place on their identical 7-6 win-loss cards.

“We’re back on track and I like where we stand now,” said Talk n Text coach Chot Reyes.

Curiously, the Smart-PLDT franchise made it 3-of-3 on games abroad after victories over Shell in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2005 and versus Purefoods in Hong Kong the following year.

The Beermen failed to sustain the momentum of a 20-point rout of the Air21 Express Wednesday back in Manila but, with an 8-6 card, remained at second place behind the Alaska Milk Aces (9-4).

Talk n Text outhustled and outmaneuvered San Miguel Beer in the final half for a second straight win following a 22-point rout of Sta. Lucia Wednesday at the Big Dome.

“Coming into this game, I told the boys any team can play one good game as we did against Sta. Lucia, but the mark of a good team is the ability to string up consecutive good games. We’ve made it two in a row and hopefully we can continue winning,” said Reyes.

Alapag, Dillinger, Ritualo and Cardona stepped up, neutralizing the numbers of Lordy Tugade, Mick Pennisi and Jay Washington for San Miguel.

Alapag, Ritualo and Cardona combined for 11 triples and a total of 49 points with Dillinger contributing 17 points.

“We drew energy from our backcourt players whose exploits offset San Miguel’s rebounds,” said Reyes.

Badly beaten in rebounds, 53-83, in their previous tiff, the Texters performed better last night, pulling down 54 caroms as against the Beermen’s 62.

Washington, who sizzled with 21 points and 14 rebounds the last time, was limited to 12 points although he came through with a game-high 19 rebounds.

“Medyo nawala na ang gigil niya and I think we did a good job defending him this time,” said Reyes in containing his former player.

Alapag and Cardona struck hard in the second half, fueling key runs that carried the Texters past the Beermen in the game marred by a heated confrontation between Pennisi and Cardona in the first half.