TnT shoves off Petron, reaches semis

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Cup champion Talk n Text took another crucial step in its quest for successive titles, sweeping Petron Blaze in a best-of-three quarterfinals showdown to reach the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Final Four at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

The Tropang Texters survived another poor showing by import Jerome Jordan, grinding out a 96-86 victory to advance to the best-of-five semis versus the winner of the Rain or Shine-Barangay Ginebra match-up.

Coach Norman Black and his staff are likely to be keen observers on the sidelines as the E-Painters and the Kings knock each other out at 6:45 p.m. tonight at the Big Dome.

“Definitely, Rain or Shine is bigger. They can match up size-wise. We have the advantage with Ginebra because Billy Mamaril is out. But I don’t care at this point which team we play in the semis. I’m just happy to be in the semis,” said Black.

“We were below .500 at least twice. We struggled the whole conference, but we’ve picked up our game when it matters most. The guys know that if we’re to make a run, it’s now or the season is over for us,” Black added.

Petron went the other way around.

An early leader with Renaldo Balkman as import, Petron scrambled in the more important part of the tourney, thus becoming the league’s fourth casualty after Globalport, Barako Bull and Air21.

In their first two tourneys under coach Olsen Racela, the Boosters failed to make it past the quarterfinals.

As in Game One Friday, the Talk n Text locals carried much of the load with Jordan putting in woeful numbers of 11 points and five rebounds.

“Lots of credit goes to the locals. They just delivered,” said Black.

Ranidel de Ocampo, Jayson Castro and Ryan Reyes combined for 47 points, including all of TnT’s last 13 markers as the Texters secured a ninth straight semis appearance.

“They stepped up when Jerome was on the bench on foul trouble. Their defense was much better. Our game improved a lot. The focus was there and the execution was there,” said Black.

The Texters battled the Boosters toe-to-toe in the first 40 minutes of the game before finding an opening for a key run and the decisive win.

Entering the last two minutes, Petron was actually still within striking distance at 86-91.

The Boosters, however, missed all of their next five field attempts, and a three-point play by Reyes sealed the outcome of the contest.

Marcio Lassiter led all scorers with 23 points but himself struggled in the crunch. He was limited to four after firing away 19 in the first half.  

Titleholder San Mig Coffee hung on to dear life as it fought with a steely resolve and got even with Meralco, 100-92, in the second game of their own best-of-three quarters duel.

On Wednesday, the Mixers and the Bolts knock each other out for the right to play the Alaska Milk Aces in the semis.

“We certainly haven’t won anything yet and nothing to get excited about. We really need to take a more businesslike approach in this series,” said San Mig coach Tim Cone.