MANILA — The Texters could afford to lose and still take the top seeding in the conference, yet they played like they were fighting for dear life. The reason? Pride. With this in mind, the Talk N Text Tropang Texters razed a 14-point deficit to beat the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings, 87-80, Sunday on the last day of the elimination round of the 2012-2013 PBA Philippine Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena. Playing their hearts out, the league-leading Texters went on a 19-7 run in the fourth canto, allowing the Kings just one field goal for the entire quarter, to notch their 12th victory in 14 games. Jason Castro led the defending champions with 24 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Ali Peek provided ample support with a double-double of 16 points and 18 rebounds, plus three shot blocks. Mark Caguioa and LA Tenorio spearheaded the Kings' offense, scoring 20 and 19 respectively. Talk N Text will square off with the eighth seeded Air21 in the quarterfinals. The Kings ended the elimination round with a 7-7 win-loss card to take sixth place in the standings. They will go up against the third-seeded Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in a best-of-three quarterfinals duel starting Wednesday. The Kings had beaten the Painters twice in the elimination round, but that was before Rain or Shine's reactivation of reigning Rookie of the Year Paul Lee and fourth round draft pick Chris Tiu. Talk N Text head coach Norman Black said before the match that he told his boys to play their guts out even if they could afford to lose. “There's no such thing as a non-bearing game. We want to play as hard as we could. I think we owe it all to the fans. We just hung in there and made some big shots down the stretch,” he said. “The win was more about pride, more than anything else.” Moreover, the Texters wanted to get back at the Kings who defeated them in their first meeting. In stark contrast to the Texters' fighting spirit, the San Mig Coffee Mixers — who were also playing a no-bearing game — played uninspired basketball against the Meralco Bolts in the curtain-raiser of the Sunday double-header. The result was a ho-hum 87-77 win by the Bolts. With the Mixers already assured of the second seeding in the quarterfinals regardless of the outcome of Sunday's match, San Mig head coach Tim Cone decided to rest top gunner James Yap, who is nursing bone spurs on his right ankle. San Mig Coffee enjoys a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals against the Petron Blaze Boosters. San Mig Coffee's lackadaisical attitude in the game was obvious as the smaller Bolts outrebounded the much bigger Mixers, 57-43. Playing against a team whose mind is already contemplating the next round, the Bolts had little trouble in pulling off their eighth victory in 14 games, as they took the fourth spot in the rankings. They thus arranged a best-of-three quarterfinals series against the Alaska Aces, who actually had the same win-loss card as the Bolts but had inferior quotient, relegating them to the fifth seed. Mac Cardona and Reynel Hugnatan led the Bolts with 15 points each, while Sol Mercado chipped in with 12 points. Hugnatan also had nine rebounds. With Yap in the freezer, Peter June Simon led the Mixers with 19 points.
