Heart of a Champion: Crippled Texters fight 'till the end

MANILA, Philippines – Now it can be told.

Ranidel de Ocampo suffered a bruised right calf in the closing moments of Game Four causing him to miss the most important game of their semifinal series against Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel Kings.

It was a big blow that the Kings pounced on in the series clincher to run away with a 111-103 victory.

Chua and his coaching staff did not know De Ocampo would not play but once they saw the Tropang Texters’ starting lineup, they knew what to do.

Vernon Macklin threw his weight around in the shaded lane finishing with monster numbers of 22 points and 20 rebounds as De Ocampo helplessly watched from the bench.

“Natamaan ng tuhod ni Rudy [Hatfield] noong patapos na ang Game Four. Nung naramdaman ko, alam kong hindi na ako makakalaro sa Game Five kaya sabi ko kailangang manalo. Pero hindi nangyari. Ganun talaga eh,” De Ocampo told Philstar.com the day before Game Five.

The Talk n Text top forward even told his coach he would play in Game Five but Norman Black replied, “Are you superman?”

Even Black’s counterpart Alfrancis Chua acknowledged that De Ocampo’s absence took its toll on the Texters.

Everybody knows Ranidel is one of the best 4-5 man in the league,” Chua said. “Kung nandun si Ranidel, the scary part is, when Norman will use him as 4, we’ll have a problem. Sino ang babantayan ni Vernon Macklin?”

Without his top forward, the Talk n Text mentor tried to whip up his “Black magic” anew as his Tropang Texters stormed back from a 20-point halftime deficit to come within four, 68-72, in the third quarter.

But in the end, the injuries were simply too much to overcome.

Jimmy Alapag, who was nursing a strained calf, played a meaningless five minutes. Then Jared Dillinger, who was in crutches, saw the team fall apart in the fourth quarter.  A thousand miles away from the Smart Araneta Coliseum, Kelly Williams followed the game.  

“So proud of my team. Took it to a knockout game in the semis with only 40% of the team. Heads up. Rest… recover… remember,” Williams posted on his Twitter account (@Kelwilliams21) shortly after the loss last night.

“It (series) became a little bit difficult because we lost so many players,” Black said.

"Well, we lost Kelly Williams, our starting center. We lost Ranidel de Ocampo, starting power forward. We lost Jimmy Alapag, our starting point guard, and we lost Jared Dillinger, our starting small forward,” Black went further. “We did the best we could.”

But despite the loss, banged up and all, Talk n Text showed the heart of a champion by almost crashing into the Finals.