Jason Castro of Talk N Text (light) vs Kelly Nabong and Stanley Pringle of Globalport (dark). PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines — Talk ‘N Text approached Sunday’s game differently than any of its other games this conference.
Tropang Texters head coach Jong Uichico said the players were “extra motivated” heading into their game but it was not because of their stunning loss to the Kia Carnival last Wednesday but rather due to their previous defeat a little over three months ago.
“They are extra motivated because of last conference when we lost that game [against Globalport].”
“That was the game where Terrence (Romeo) and Ronjay (Buenafe) exploded and shot a lot of threes,” Uichico recalled after a 96-88 TNT win to claim a half a game lead in the standings. “That’s their extra motivation today, last conference’s game.”
READ: PBA: Texters rebound, trump Batang Pier
In that 105-97 loss to Globalport, guard Terrence Romeo shot himself out of a slump with 30 points while swingman Ronjay Buenafe scored 11 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter as the Batang Pier shot the lights out from deep by going 15-of-28.
The Texters kept that in mind and this time, they were locked in defensively. Romeo had 20 points but just two in the final two quarters while Buenafe scored just four points on 1-of-3 shooting from the field and the Batang Pier missed 18 out of their 25 attempts from the three-point area.
Talk ‘N Text approached its game against Globalport differently and the result was different.
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