The Barangay Ginebra Kings‘ championship hopes are alive as they ended the 5-conference finals streak of Coach Chot Reyes and the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters, 73-71. The Texters have won 3 of the last 5 PBA conference titles. The loss was a sad farewell for Coach Chot who will be leaving the storied Manny V. Pangilinan-owned franchise for a stint as men’s National team head coach. He will be replaced by Norman Black at the helm of the Tropang Texters in the 2012-13 season.
Last night’s game was close all-throughout. The first period was a bit high scoring before the game turned into a defensive battle. Ginebra was only leading by 2 at the end of the second, and third quarters. Talk and Text grabbed the lead in the 4th canto at 68-66 after a basket by import Paul Harris. Ginebra fought back with a 7-1 run capped by a Kerby Raymundo three-pointer to grab a 4 point lead at 73-69 with 2:56 left in regulation. The game went scoreless for over 2 minutes after both teams tightened up their defense. Harris broke the lull by scoring on a drive with 39.9 seconds left to bring the Tropang Texters closer at 73-71. In the ensuing possession, the Barangay Kings could not make a decent attempt at the basket resulting to a shot clock violation giving the Talk ‘N Text 15.3 seconds to design a play to tie or grab the lead. Harris, however, stepped on the baseline after being hounded by Ginebra import Cedric Bozeman resulting to turnover with 3.9 seconds left. In the next inbound play, Bozeman was able to find Willy Wilson who ran out the clock by throwing the ball in the air and clinching the win for the crowd favorites.
Mark Caguioa top scored for the Kings with 18 points, a stark contrast to his 3 point performance against B-Meg last Sunday. Raymundo, Bozeman, and Mike Cortez scored in double figures for Ginebra. Harris had a monster 25-point 18-rebound performance for the Texters. No other Talk ‘N Text player scored more than 8 points.
Ginebra will battle B-Meg Llamados for the chance to fight for the championships against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. The do or die battle will be played on Friday while Game One of the finals will be Sunday.
The scores:
Barangay Ginebra 73 – Caguioa 18, Raymundo 15, Bozeman 14, Cortez 11, Maierhofer 4, Mamaril 4, Hatfield 4, W. Wilson 2, Villanueva 1, Ababou 0, Helterbrand 0.
Talk ‘N Text 71 – Harris 25, Reyes 8, De Ocampo 8, Castro 7, Alapag 7, Peek 7, Williams 3, Aguilar 2, Fonacier 2, Carey 2, Aban 0.
Quarter scoring: 27-21, 42-40, 61-59, 73-71
Related articles
- 2012 PBA Governor’s Cup Semifinals: Talk ‘N Text wins over Rain or Shine to set up do or die with Ginebra (caloysports.wordpress.com)
- 2012 PBA Governor’s Cup Semifinals: B-Meg gains finals playoff berth (caloysports.wordpress.com)
- Ginebra boosts championship drive (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
- Ginebra in playoffs for finals berth (pba.ph)
- Rain or Shine makes it to the PBA Governor’s Cup Finals
[...] 2012 PBA Governor’s Cup Semifinals: Kings eliminates Tropang Texters (caloysports.wordpress.com) [...]