GETTING off to a good start in any tournament is a must. And the purpose takes on additional meaning when the team involved is Text N Text.

The Tropang Texters have to build up whatever cushion they could before losing head coach Chot Reyes and ace forward Kelly Williams to the Guangzhou Asian Games on Nov. 13-27.

They fanned their hopes toward that end with a 93-83 win over Alaska last Sunday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

It was the second straight win and fifth in six games overall for TNT, enabling the Texters to move alongside idle San Miguel Beer for the lead almost halfway through their 14-game eliminations campaign.

The triumph, fueled by some key defensive stops and a Jason Castro-led charge in the latter stages of the fourth period, also avenged the Texters’ loss to the Aces in the deciding game of their best-of-seven semifinals confrontation in the last Fiesta Conference.

It is on the present and more immediate future Reyes is more concerned with.

"It was important to win to keep pace with San Miguel," he said after his team recorded its first 5-1 start since the 2004-05 Philippine Cup.

"If we continue playing like this, then we’ll have enough wins before we leave because we want so much to make it to the semis outright," he added.

The Texters did not get off to a fast start against the Aces but had ample weapons in their well-stocked arsenal to muster a late-game charge that tided them over.

"Our first priority was to get off to a good start. You can’t just leave Alaska behind but at least you would have the cushion. In the end, we had enough horses to withstand their endgame charge," Reyes said.

Castro proved to be a big factor, firing 13 of his team-high 17 points in the last quarter, including nine in a decisive 11-2 run that opened a 91-79 TNT advantage.
"If Jason continues to shoot that way, we’ll be hard to beat," said Reyes of the 5-foot-10 hard-nosed guard who went 4-of-11 from the field and 8-of-8 from the stripe while also collecting six rebounds and one assist against one error in a sterling 22-minute off-the-bench job.

Before that, the two teams figured in a fierce battle marked by six deadlocks and seven lead changes.

Starters Jimmy Alapag, Jared Dillinger, Harvey Carey, Kelly Williams and Ryan Reyes also played well, enabling TNT to at least keep pace with Alaska in the first 40 minutes of play.

In the end, the Aces reeled to their third straight loss that dropped them to joint fourth place with the Powerade Tigers at 3-3.

It was Alaska’s first three-game losing slump since being swept by Purefoods (now B-MEG Derby Ace) in the 2009-2010 PBA Philippine Cup finals.

Despite being the focal point of TNT’s defense, Joe Devance still managed to notch a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds.

"Joe is becoming a bitch to defend. He’s becoming the best in the league. It took the collective efforts of Jared, Harvey and Kelly to slow him down. We slowed him down and yet he produced 23 points and 10 rebounds," noted Reyes.

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