THE GENIUS IN CHOT REYES

When his back is against the wall and when push becomes a shove, Chot Reyes is one guy who truly knows what to do. Reyes pulled two rabbits off his hat in the persons of reserve import Maurice Baker and injured star Jason Castro. The two combined for 37 points, 17 rebounds and 9 assists to power the grand-slam seeking Talk N Text Tropang Texters to a whopping 104-78 rout of the Petron Blaze Boosters, and set-up a deciding seventh game for the season-ending PBA Governors Cup title. Reyes gambled on Baker, who has not played in the last 10 games, to replace the small, ineffective and defensive liability Scottie Reynolds. But the biggest contribution that Baker did in the crucial game six win was the leech-like defense on the Blazers prolific import Anthony Grundy. Baker did to Grundy what the latter did to Reynolds during games four and five. Baker limited Grundy to a measly five points which contributed greatly to Petron’s downfall. Reyes cited the great over-all game brilliance of Baker as the key to the Tropang Texters victory.

"All we did was tie the series. We came in tonight wanting to play 96 good minutes. We achieved the first half of it and now we’ve got to find a way to get the second half. All we wanted from Baker was to defend Grundy. That he was able to contribute on offense was a bonus.”