Fourth seeded Talk N’ Text Tropang Texters capitalized on the puzzled Barako Bull squad after a couple of trades coming into the playoffs to steal a 105-76 victory to advance to the final phase of the quarterfinals. It was a brilliant performance for the Texters all game long as they eliminated the ninth seeded Energy Boosters.
Ganuelas-Rosser leads the show
Tropang Texters rookie Matt Ganuelas-Rosser was the biggest hero of the team as he scattered his 19 markers all throughout the contest. He did have enough support with fellow rookie Kevin Alas and Gilas mainstay Jayson Castro both scoring 14. Meanwhile, Larry Fonacier and Ryan Reyes had 11 and 10, respectively.
Only captain Jimmy Alapag failed to score a point as nine of the 14 fielded players scored at least five markers.
High clip
It was Ganuelas-Rosser again who led the good shooting clip of the Texters, only missing two shots out of his 10 attempts in the match. Ganuelas-Rosser’s 80 percent shooting helped the Texters pound a 51.3 field goal percentage to go with 43.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
More than just great shooting, the Texters held their own as they managed to force Barako Bull to miss a total of 62 shots, only good for 32.6 percent. Barako Bull also had a miserable shooting night from three-point land as they shot 3-of-25 from that region.
Paint dominance
At the end of the first half, the Texters led the Energy Boosters 26-9 in terms of scoring in the paint.
Majority of their points in the paint were not from post up plays, but instead came from the drives of Ganuelas-Rosser and Alas with some coming off Rob Reyes’ positioning in the middle.
Inside scoring just got worse for Barako Bull as they allowed the Texters to tow them in for a total of 54 points in the middle compared to their 32 markers the paint.
Complete dominance to advance
The Tropang Texters dominated in almost all departments, except they committed more turnovers than the Energy Boosters. However, they still managed to come up with more turnover points. With the dominant victory, the Texters will carry the huge momentum as they await the winner of the Ginebra-GlobalPort series for a knockout match in the second phase of the quarterfinals.
