MANILA (PBA Commissioner’s Cup) - All-Philippine Cup champions Talk N Text kept their hopes of a Grand Slam alive with a 118-104 win in Game 3 on Wednesday that helped them sweep their semi-final against Air21 Express 3-0.

The other semi-final between Smart Gilas and Ginebra Kings stretched into Game 4 after the former won 100-88 to pull one back.

Ginebra had won Game 1 and Game 2 of the best-of-five series.

Casio provides spark

With Smart Gilas trailing 49-39 at the break, Joe Casio provided the spark in the second half.

He scored 24 of his season-high 30 points after the intermission – 14 of them in the third quarter – as Smart Gilas turned the game around in the period, outscoring their Ginebra 35-18.

“We’re the National team and we want to prove something,” said Casio, who hit on seven of his nine three-pointers

“We just want to stay alive and keep competing.”

The Smart Gilas team form the core of the Philippines National Team and are playing the PBA as a guest team to prepare for the 26th FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan (China) later this year.

Naturalised Filipino Marcus Douthit had a productive night with 25 points and 14 rebounds while John Ramos added 15 points.

“The next game will surely be more difficult but we’ll be there fighting to stay alive,” said Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman.

Game 4 is on Sunday.

Import Nate Brumfield had 30 points and 13 rebounds to pace Ginebra, but some of the locals were off-colour. Mark Caguioa had only seven points and Mike Cortez only eight.

Yancy De Ocampo, returning from a one-game suspension, had 13 points.

“That’s one of those nights when it was like a shooting competition. Casio torched us with his fiery shooting,” said Ginebra coach Jong Uichico.

“They had adjustments in their offense that worked. Now, we have to contend with them again, we have to make our best effort to stop their 6-foot-10 guy (Douthit),” Uichico added.

Razor-sharp TnT

Meanwhile, Air21 Express raised hopes of an upset when they went ahead 30-21 at the end of first quarter, only to see Talk N Text hit back with a vengeance.

Chot Reyes’ team unleashed a 30-14 fury in the second quarter and never looked back. A 15-3 run at the start of the third quarter only strengthened their grip on the proceedings.

“We have an expression in this team, which is ‘Don’t exhale,’” said Reyes, borrowing Miami Heat coach Eric Spoelstra’s words.

“That’s exactly what we did in playing a team like Air21, We took a big deep breath, and we kept on pushing and pushing until the final buzzer,” said Reyes who is looking for second straight title of the season.

“We are just one step closer to our goal. We still need four games to win the championship, and we will take another big deep breath,” said Reyes who already had six titles in his pocket.

Paul Harris led TnT’s with 28 points and nine rebounds.

Jimmy Alapag added 27 and Larry Fonacier chipped in with 19.

Wynne Arboleda paced Air21 with 28 points, Dondon Hontiveros added 23 while Danny Seigle had 21.

But Sierra Leonean import Alpha Bangura was held to just eight points and that went a long way in paving the way for TnT’s win.

FIBA Asia