Petron Blaze torches Talk ‘N Text

MANILA—An All-Filipino Petron Blaze crew broke down Talk ‘N Text’s vaunted defense last night on the way to a 101-96 triumph that meant not only the solo lead for the Boosters, but the first semifinal seat in the PBA Governors Cup as well.

Arwind Santos scored 25 points and completed his sixth double-double of the tournament with 14 rebounds and Alex Cabagnot was also big the whole night at the Araneta Coliseum as the Boosters rose to 5-2 overall even without import Jeremy Wise.

Cabagnot scattered 14 points capped by a looping, right-handed layup off Ranidel de Ocampo before Mick Pennisi made his only triple of the night to cap a 7-0 spurt that put the game to bed for Petron, 99-90, going into the final 24.1 seconds.

“It so happened that our offense clicked together with our defense,” Petron coach Ato Agustin told reporters in Filipino later. “We had patience in executing our plays.”

“We prepared really well for this game,” he added. “We stopped their transition offense, worked on our individual defense and played a physical game.”

Sunday Salvacion was the other big figure for Agustin, with the former NCAA MVP with College of St. Benilde shooting 23, nine of them coming in the fourth period. It was Salvacion’s highest output in a San Miguel/Petron uniform.

Cabagnot also had a career-high tying 13 feeds, the last of them coming with 1:39 left that resulted in a Pennisi layup which signaled the start of Petron’s late-game breakaway.

Wise, who is actually Petron’s third import here, will be leaving back for the United States soon after tearing the meniscus in his right knee in a tightrope win over B-Meg last Wednesday.

Agustin refused to give the name of the replacement, whom he hopes would arrive Tuesday at the earliest.

Larry Fonacier led the Grand Slam-seeking Tropang Texters with 21 points and De Ocampo went on to finish with 19.

But Talk ‘N Text took its second loss in six games because import Maurice Baker was hobbled with five fouls early in the fourth and was scoreless in the quarter to finish with just 12.

Jimmy Alapag came off the bench and was scoreless in 26 minutes for the Texters.

Meanwhile, the PBA has drawn up several guidelines in order to avoid a repeat of the Dubai incident that stranded the Texters last weekend.

Some of the new rules to be implemented would be for the promoter of any trip to pay the PBA upfront so that the Commissioner’s Office would have complete control of the travel itinerary of the delegation.

Commissioner Chito Salud also came from a meeting with Talk ‘N Text big boss Manny V. Pangilinan and board representative Ricky Vargas to personally apologize for the incident.

Meanwhile, Rain or Shine edged Meralco in overtime, 116-113, to grab a share of second place with TNT.

Elasto Painters’ Larry Rodriguez hit leaning triple to force extra session with both squads knotted at 103.

ROS upped its mark to 4-2.

The scores:
PETRON 101—Santos 25, Salvacion 23, Cabagnot 14, Duncil 12, Pennisi 8, Guevarra 6, Al-Hussaini 6, Ildefonso 4, Miranda 2, Hubalde 1.
TALK ‘N TEXT 96—Fonacier 21, De Ocampo 19, Reyes 13, Baker 12, Castro 12, Peek 8, Carey 6, Williams 5, Alvarez 0, Lao 0, Alapag 0.
Quarters: 32-26, 53-40, 77-73, 101-96