MANILA — Trailing by 13 points in the third quarter, the defending champions Talk N Text Tropang Texters suddenly caught fire in the homestretch to pull out a scintillating 80-77 win against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters Saturday in a PBA Philippine Cup road game in Victorias City, Negros Occidental. The Texters turned to Larry Fonacier to deliver the goods in the final quarter, and the baby-faced gunner obliged, hitting crucial shots to spark the TNT uprising. He tallied 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Talk N Text notched a league-best 6-0 win-loss card despite missing the services of starting point guard Jason Castro who injured one of his fingers. Jimmy Alapag paced TNT with 15 points, while Ranidel de Ocampo and Ali Peek contributed 13 and 11 points, respectively. The Painters, the 2012 Governors' Cup champions, suffered only their second loss in six games to stay at solo second in the standings. Rain or Shine appeared on the verge of coasting along to victory after taking a 53-40 lead in the third quarter. Gathering his troops, TNT head coach Norman Black exhorted them to tighten their defense to get out of the hole they found themselves in. The Texters responded with one defensive gem after another, finally catching up with the Painters at 71-all with six minutes left in the game. Alapag then drilled the go-ahead three-point shot followed by a Fonacier runner to give TNT a 76-73 lead A basket by Jeff Chan and a charity split by TY Tang cut the TNT lead to a single point, 78-77 with 1:12 left. The Painters failed to score in their next possession, forcing them to foul De Ocampo to stop the clock. The veteran power forward converted both charities to pad TNT's lead to three. Rain or Shine had two chances to send the game into extra period but the three-point attempts by Tang and J.R. Quinahan bounced off the rim.
