Talk ‘N Text slows down Rain or Shine

Harvey Carye vs Matias. Nuki Sabio/PBA

MANILA, Philippines—Talk ‘N Text got back to its defensive ways to turn back Rain or Shine, 86-76, Wednesday night in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Tropang Texters, who went above .500 at 4-3 to tie Meralco in fourth place, put the clamps down on the Elasto Painters late in the game.

“At least in this game we played much better defense. Our defense has been very suspect this conference,” said TNT head coach Norman Black. “My battle cry with the players is we can’t really score the way we like so make sure we play good defense.”

It wasn’t the case early in the fourth period where ROS took a one-point lead twice, the second time on a JR Quiñahan drive, 66-65, at the 8:24 mark.

Larry Fonacier, who shot 12 of his 17 points in the second half, gave the lead back to TNT on a triple, 68-66, with 8:03 left as the Texters took control from that point on.

Fonacier, who became just the 23rd player in the league to make at least 500 triples, made another one from long distance to widen TNT’s gap, 79-70.

Jayson Castro sank a tough left corner jumper that put away the E-Painters, who were without head coach Yeng Guiao, for good, 81-72, with 2:28 remaining.

Castro finished with 11 points, three rebounds and five assists while import Donnell Harvey had 23 points and nine rebounds. Fonacier also grabbed nine boards and had three assists to boot.

Bruno Sundov paced Rain or Shine, which absorbed just its second loss in seven outings, with 25 points and eight rebounds.

TNT held ROS to just 34.9% shooting from the field while also forcing 16 turnovers as compared to only six for the Texters.