TNT hands Niños another loss

TALK ‘N Text Tropang Texters went to the reliable hands of Kelly Williams and Jason Castro to douse cold water on the fire the M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala (MLKP)-Cebu Niños started to build, to score a 96-76 win in the second day of the 2012 Mayor Mike L. Rama PBA Pre-Season Invitational Basketball Tournament at the Cebu Coliseum last night.

On Castro’s masterful quarterbacking, TNT was able to regain momentum when the Niños started to pull away in the third, then turned a 47-51 deficit to a 58-53 lead entering the final period after a telling 6-0 run.

A triple each from Stephen Padilla and Jeric Cañada at the start of the final period gave MLKP its final taste of the lead at 60-58 before Williams scored six of a wicked 8-0 blast that pulled the Tropang Texters away.

And even when Padilla and Cañada sank two more triples each, TNT had control and capped the game with a 12-3 run to break away from a close 78-75 score at the final 4:33 mark.

The win came on the heels of TNT’s 73-70 loss to Alaska Aces Friday evening.

Castro and Williams scored 16 points each; Jason Escueta and Ryan Reyes added 11 and Bam-Bam Galaminda finished with 10.

Mark Magsumbol, Stephen Padilla and Eric Rodriguez scored 14 points each, Cañada finished with 11 and Richard Ian Saladaga notched 10 markers fo MLKP’s second defeat.

Today, MLKP-Cebu Niños will try to secure a victory as they play the Alaska Aces at 4 p.m. while TNT will play against San Mig Coffee Mixers in the main game at 6 p.m.

As of press time, the much anticipated pre-season encounter between the Aces and the Mixers followed after the MLKP-TNT game.