Talk n Text Beats Powerade In 2011 PBA Governors' Cup: Larry Fonacier For Three

Photo from PBA.ph

June 25, 2011-The Talk 'n Text Tropang Texters (TNT) survived an acid test game against the confident Powerade Tigers in their out of town game in Davao yesterday. The Tigers were confident to have a sharper and a better performance coming into this game because their ace gunner Gary David is back after being sidelined because of injury. David made a quick impact for his team as he made several crucial shots to make the game close. TNT had to work extra hard to carve out this win. Fortunately, Ali Peek and Larry Fonacier stepped up in this game to give TNT their 3rd straight win in this very short 2011 PBA Governors' Cup. The final score was 89-85. TNT just served up Powerade's 3rd loss in 4 games.

In the first half of this game Chris Porter of Powerade only had 3 points but in the second hald he started to work his way to the basket to increase his output but TNT's man Mountain, Ali Peek was there to stop him. Peek made some great defensive gems against Porter. As a result, Porter only had 18 points which is way below his average. He was the defensive anchor of TNT.

Larry Fonacier, the former UAAP Junior's MVP for the Ateneo Blue Eaglets, on the other hand handled the scoring chores for TNT. He stepped up because he probably knew that Jimmy Alapag was just fresh from injury and Jayson Castro was hurt in the first half. Fonacier was able to score 27 points in this game. He's outputs are slowly increasing as the tournament progresses. Most of his points came mostly from beyond the arc. He had a great field goal shooting in this game. He had 8 three-point shots in this game. He's all good that the legendary Ronnie Magsanoc said on national TV, "Larry Fonacier, For Three'eeee!"

I also had to commend Powerade's effort in this game. They were able to scare TNT in the last 5 minutes of this ball game. I even saw coach Chot Reyes bow his head while he was witnessing how Powerade's Gary David launched his killer three pointers to tie the ball game. But those three's were not that fatal as TNT was able to survive Powerade's attacks. Nonetheless, this was the first game in the Governor's Cup that I saw TNT engaged in a very close skirmish.

All game long, I saw how Powerade has improved in terms of their heart and their will to win. They were down by 16 points, 53-37, in the start of the 3rd quarter but with their leader, Gary David back, they were able to make a comeback. In fact they were able to tie the ball game in several instances until Larry Fonacier launched a back breaking 4 point play in the last 50 seconds of the ball game. But I had to give Gary David his due as he was able to score big time for his team when they needed him the most. Despite missing 3 games, Gary David came out firing in this game as he had 10 points in this game and he did that in just limited minutes because coach Bo Perasol was still pacing him. Few more games and for sure, he'll be back in his usual self. It's one of those losses that you have to get excited after it because you have that weird feeling that this team will be good in the future.


Here are the scores of this game from PBA.ph.

Talk n Text 89 - Fonacier 27, Peek 14, Castro 14, Baker 11, Ryan Reyes 10, Aban 6, De Ocampo 4,
Carey 3, Williams 0, Alapag 0, Alvarez 0, LaO 0.

Powerade 85 - Porter 18, David 10, Laure 8, Quinahan 8, Cruz 8, Macapagal 7, Anthony 6, Gonzales 4,
Rizada 4, Allera 4, Antonio 3, Reyes, J. 2, Espino 2, Lanete 1, Reyes, R. 0.