San Mig Coffee holds off Talk ‘N Text, nears finals

Paul Harris of Talk N’ Text (Dark) vs Marqus Blakely of San Mig (Light). Nuki Sabio/PBA

MANILA, Philippines — San Mig Coffee squandered a commanding lead before holding off Talk ‘N Text, 93-85, to gain a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five semifinals duel in the 2014 PBA Governors’ Cup Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Marqus Blakely led the way with 19 points and 10 rebounds on top of four assists and two blocks for the Mixers, whose 20-point lead in the second quarter was trimmed to five, 58-53, late in the third quarter.

“It seemed like we were in control pretty much the whole game until the end of the third quarter,” said San Mig Coffee head coach Tim Cone. “We were fighting ourselves the whole time because we really knew they were going to make a huge run and they did. They cut it down to five and we had a response every time.”

“Two games don’t make a series win if it’s a best-of-five and if any team can come back from it, it’s this team. But we’re very blessed to be up 2-0,” Cone said, who is looking to steer the Mixers to their first-ever Grand Slam in franchise history while also becoming the only coach in league history to guide two different teams to such rare feat.

Cone led Alaska to a Grand Slam in 1996.

San Mig Coffee, which followed up its 92-88 win in Game 1 last Thursday, goes for the semis sweep and a fourth straight championship berth on Monday.

Paul Harris had a game-high 33 points, 15 coming in the fourth quarter, for the top-seeded Tropang Texters, who are on the verge of getting beat in the playoffs for the second straight conference by the Mixers after losing in the Commissioner’s Cup finals early May.

The Texters’ two best locals Jayson Castro and Ranidel de Ocampo were held to just 21 points combined on just seven-of-26 shooting from the field. Castro, last conference’s Best Player of the Conference, also had a bad night at the line missing four out of his six free throws.

De Ocampo made just one-of-five from deep but his lone 3-pointer cut San Mig Coffee’s lead down to just seven with still 1:42 left.

The Mixers though, put the game away with a crucial offensive rebound after James Yap missed a jumper as the shot clock was winding down and a big basket that widened their gap back to nine, 89-80, with 51.2 ticks left.

Yap and PJ Simon, were both game-time decisions, according to Cone but the two veteran guards still produced with a total of 17 points in less than 25 minutes of action.

Joe Devance also scored 19 points for San Mig Coffee while Barroca nearly had a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds that went with two denials on Harris and Jayson Castro in the key stages of the final frame.

The Texters, who were out-rebounded, 44-55, shot just 35% from the field.