PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines—Mark Barroca delivered the killer blows as San Mig Coffee turned back Talk N’ Text, 100-87, to fuel its streak to four in the 2014 PLDT MyDSL Philippine Cup Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Mixers’ star guard poured all but four of his 16 points in the payoff period and put them game beyond reach for the Texters with a triple for 98-85 lead with two minutes to play.
PJ Simon added 19 points, bulk of it in the third quarter where the Mixers kept their advantage even with the Texters just within striking distance.
San Mig Coffee, which is started with a horrific 1-5 start card but is now the second hottest team in the league, closed out its elimination round campaign with an commendable 7-7 card.
“When we started to 1-5, our goal was to get back at .500. Didn’t think we’d do it, but were finishing at 7-7 and to me it’s a real nice accomplishment,” offered head coach Tim Cone.
It was a gruelling road for the Mixers to the quarterfinals, having to hurdle Ginebra, Air21, Petron and Talk N’ Text at the tail end of the eliminations.
“It was a real tough finish for us. The teams we played in the last 4 games, before those, it certainly didn’t look very good. But we found away, they picked up their game,” said Cone.
The Texters and the Mixers are likely to square off again in the best-of-three quarterfinals series starting next week.
Jayson Castro caused huge problems for San Mig Coffee in the first half and exploded for 17 points, but was just limited to four points from then on.
It was a horrible 3-point shooting night for the Texters, who couldn’t shoot the treys when they needed to get things going and ended up with a 21.4% clip.
In contrast to San Mig Coffee, Talk N’ Text dropped its third straight assignment for a 7-6 card. The defending champions face league-leader Ginebra on Sunday.
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