Talk ’N Text hasn’t been beaten by Air21 since the 2008-09 season, a 12-0 win-loss mastery including a 114-96 Game Two win on Sunday in their semifinal bout at the Araneta Coliseum. But despite a comfortable 2-0 lead, Tropang Texters head coach Chot Reyes is still not discounting the possibility of the Express’s big comeback in Game Three to end that long losing skid and get back in the best-of-five semifinal series of the Commissioner’s Cup.
“It’s far from over,” said Reyes, who is eyeing his first back-to-back Philippine Basketball Association titles after winning the previous Philippine Cup over San Miguel Beer.
“Celebrating is farthest from our mind. They will have a two-day rest and we got to be prepared for the big fightback. They still have the best import [Alpha Bangura],” Reyes added.
Unlike in their series opener where Talk ’N Text struggled a bit before securing the 97-90 win, the Tropang Texters came out firing in the next game, building an early 28-11 first-quarter lead.
Import Paul Harris outscored the Express in the first 12 minutes of the contest as he unloaded 12 of his game-high 29 points in that stage.
Harris also limited Bangura to just two points in the opening period. Bangura finished with a conference-low 18 points on nine-of-19 shooting from the field.
Aside from Harris, Reyes also commended Harvey Carey for his quality Game Two performance.
After playing just three minutes in Game One, Carey played 29 minutes on a starting job and though he scored just six points, he helped contain Bangura and collared five offensive rebounds and 10 overall.
“He came out to play tonight after playing just five minutes in Game One,” said Reyes.
Eleven other Tropang Texters scored at least four points in a total display of balanced attack, which proved too much for head coach Bong Ramos and the Express.
“Sobrang lakas nila. We need to bring our A-plus game to upset them,” said Ramos, whose team just pulled one against Alaska in their best-of-three quarterfinal series,
“But I can’t blame my players because we played our eighth game in 17 days and it’s like playing a game every two days,” he added.
Now, the Express have a couple of days off to figure out how to end Talk ’N Text’s amazing 12-game winning streak or else, they will see their magical run in the Commissioner’s Cup end in a tragic sweep.
Joel Orellana, Business Mirror
