ALL EVEN
JAYSON Castro would not let Talk N Text get buried in a deep hole it may never get out of.
With Castro coming up with his best performance of the conference, the Tropang Texters managed to notch an 86-76 victory over San Mig Super Coffee Sunday to even up their HomeTVolution PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Castro exploded for a personal conference-high 30 points he spiked by leading TNT’s big third quarter surge that gave them full separation before making the biggest plays down the stretch in quashing the Mixers’ desperate fightback.
As a result, the Texters managed to shrug off the bitter memories of an 80-95 loss last Friday and turn the original best-of-five series into a race-to-two.
“Effort is the number one thing. We played with a lot more intensity, a lot more energy that resulted to a win tonight,” said coach Norman Black. “It was our sense of urgency that resulted to a win.”
Castro typified that the most when he went 10-for-21 from the field, including 5-for-8 from beyond the arc, and added seven rebounds, five assists and four steals in 34 minutes as a reliever.
Richard Howell wound up with 18 points and 20 rebounds for TNT, which got minimal contribution from erstwhile leading scorer Ranidel de Ocampo for the second straight game. The man who averaged almost 16 points in the playoffs chipped in eight markers.
James Mays had 15 points and 12 rebounds and Justin Melton scored a career-high 15 points to lead San Mig, which got only a combined 10 points from James Yap and PJ Simon after both were benched for the entire fourth quarter.
Yet the Mixers reserves, led by Melton, Ian Sangalang and Mark Barroca, were largely responsible for trimming the deficit that stood as much as 49-67 to more manageable levels. And when Mays came in near the midway point of the fourth, he promptly scored eight points in making it just a 73-79 game.
Then came Castro’s biggest plays of the night.
“The Blur” boomed in a triple and, after San Mig kept within 76-82, rebounded his own miss and slammed the ball of Mays before going out of the baseline, saving possession for TNT with only 30.7 ticks left.
That would prove to be the final nail in San Mig’s coffin as De Ocampo canned two charities before Howell sealed the outcome with a layup.
Castro readily gave a glimpse of things to come when he scored 10 of his points in the third period, which saw the Texters outscore the Mixers 28-16 to stretch a flimsy four-point advantage to 65-47.
Like when he shot just 1-for-13 from the floor en route to just five points in the opener, De Ocampo once again struggled when he missed his first six attempts.
Compounding the woes of the usually versatile forward were the two quick fouls he was called for with just over four minutes into the game.
Good thing Castro’s offense was humming as he scored 13 of his points in the first half, enabling TNT to take a 37-33 lead at the turn, but only through jumpers by Kelly Williams and Castro.
The Texters’ early advantage actually got stretched to a high of 24-15 when Castro strung up five points to start the second quarter, but Melton became the unlikely spark for San Mig with seven points in the period before triples by Joe Devance and Yap tied the game up at 30 and 33. (NC)
The scores:
TALK N’ TEXT 86 – Castro 30, Howell 18, Fonacier 9, De Ocampo 8, Williams 8, Carey 4, Alapag 4, Canaleta 3, Reyes Ryan 2, Reyes Rob 0.
SAN MIG SUPER COFFEE 76 – Mays 15, Melton 15, Pingris 11, Barroca 7, Sangalang 7, Yap 6, Devance 5, Simon 4, De Ocampo 2, Mallari 2, Reavis 2.
Quarterscores: 19-15, 37-33, 65-49, 86-76
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