Modest Start

Even with the return of Larry Fonacier, Jayson Castro, and Ranidel De Ocampo from their well deserved rest, still the team absorbed its second lost to the hands of their sister team Meralco Bolts. Prior to that, they took a beat down from the San Mig Coffee Mixers.

But Talk N Text Tropang Texters is just too good of a team to allow their losing skid to continue. Last Sunday, the team took care of business beating the Global Port Batang Pier. Larry Fonacier was all fired up scoring 19 points and contributed in the rebound and assist departments as well. Jayson Castro and Ranidel De Ocampo are slowly getting into the groove scoring 12 and 11 points respectively. Tony Mitchell was in his usual high scoring game with 35 points and had a couple of highlight plays.

With the win, the team improve to 2-2 win loss record. They are still in a strong position to secure a spot in the top four at the end of the elimination round. If the team will continue to improve and everyone will contribute, there's still a big possibility that they will be on top of the standings.

Team Captain Jimmy Alapag is expected to suit up for the team, this should give the them an added push knowing how Jimmy inspires his team mates to play good basketball. Now that the team is complete, hopefully they will be able to score another win and closes in to their immediate goal - to be in the top four.

Talk N Text Tropang Texters will be up against Alaska Aces this Friday. This is going to be another tough game for them since Alaska Aces lost its last assignment. The team will definitely try to bounce back to avoid a second straight defeat. Game is 7:30PM at the Mall of Asia Arena.

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Hard Earned First Win

If there's one team that is depleted in terms of line up, that would be the Talk N Text Tropang Texters. The team entered the Governor's Cup without six key players into their line up. Larry Fonacier, Jimmy Alapag, Jayson Castro, and Ranidel De Ocampo are having their well deserved rest after making the country proud with their second place finish in the recently concluded Fiba Asia Championship. Harvey Carey is currently in the United States to marry his long time girlfriend while Kelly Williams is still on leave of absence to recuperate from his recurring illness. On the other hand, the team acquired two players to fill in a huge hole, Sean Anthony and Jai Reyes are now a "katropa" but we lost our beloved lefty Jared Dillinger to Meralco Bolts.

Against the Barako Bull, the team had to rely on the scoring prowess of their explosive import Tony Mitchell. Tony is no stranger to the team as he was able to play three games for the team last Commissioner's Cup. On his first game as the returning import he scored 48 points along with 11 rebounds. He got a huge support from Ryan Reyes, Jai Reyes, and Sean Anthony. 

The first win did not come in handy, they had to go to overtime period for the game to be decided. It was a high scoring ball game as both teams reached atleast a hundred points. The guys were trailing most of the way until their 21-0 run in the third period turned things around. Sean Anthony made quite an impression as he showed the fans and the management that he's a good choice as Jared's replacement, he ended up the best player of the game with 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 steals.

The team's next assignment is the San Mig Coffee Mixers, it is going to be another tough game for them as they will again miss the services of the Gilas Pilipinas members. San Mig Coffee is on a two game skip, it is expected that they will do everything they can to get their first win in the tourney. We will be needing again the scoring power of Tony Mitchell and the support from the local players.

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Road to the Finals!

When I started this blog, I made a commitment that I will write a post after every TNT game but that commitment was not put to reality due to my other priorities. The last post I wrote was when the Talk N Text Tropang Texters suffered their first loss in the elimination round against the Alaska Aces! The team eventually finished the elimination round on top of the standings with a 12-2 win-loss record.

The road to the finals was not an easy one for the team, they went through the quarter finals round with a twice to beat advantage against the Air21 Express. Their game against the Express was nerve wracking, I thought for a second that they will have to go through the do or die game.

Then here comes the young and talented Alaska Aces team for the semifinals round. Alaska Aces is a totally different with the entry of their super rookie Calvin Abueva, they gave the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters a very good fight. A lot of people would say that the series will be over in four games but that wasn’t the case as the Aces proved to be a tough team to beat. It was definitely a beautiful series to watch with a handful of technical fouls, ejection, and sanctioned meted. At the end, it was the experience and composure of the team that won the series.

On the next - the finals, they will be up against another young and talented team – the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. Having won their first ever championship trophy in the Governor’s Cup, the E-Painters are highly motivated to add another championship trophy to their collection. They are also wanted to prove to everybody that they can go all the way to the finals without an import.

These two teams will definitely try to do everything to get to be called the “champions” once again. For the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters, they are aiming for 3-peat that will enable them to take home prestigious Jun Bernardino trophy while the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters want to show that they are for real and not just a fluke.

As for the coaches, Norman Black is looking for his 11th PBA championships while Yeng Giuao wants to complete his collection with an All Fipino trophy.

Game one of the best of seven series will kick off on January 8, 2012 at the Smart Araneta Colisuem.

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