BalotSports.info

MANILA, Philippines - Talk n Text scoring machine Macmac Cardona gained his third Accel-KFC Player of the Week citation in the current PBA season on an impressive performance Wednesday fittingly capping sterling exploits in 2009.

Cardona figured in a fierce shootout with Sta. Lucia’s Ryan Reyes and had the last laugh with a 34-point production giving the Tropang Texters a 117-112 win over the Realtors in their final game in the year.

The former La Salle sentinel also churned out five assists, two rebounds and one steal as against Reyes’ career-best 32 points that went with 12 rebounds, seven assists and four steals.

Cardona emerged as the top choice for the PoW honors, beating teammate Ali Peek, Rain or Shine’s Sol Mercado, Purefoods’ Kerby Raymundo and Ginebra’s JC Intal.

It was Cardona’s third in the season after sharing honors with Alaska’s Reynel Hugnatan on Oct. 19-25 and being the lone choice on Nov. 23-29.


Cardona is among the consistent top performers in the season, leading everyone in scoring with 21.8 points a game.

“I’m just doing the best I can each game with the main goal of helping my team to be on top,” said Cardona.

Coming through with his third 30-point job in their last four games, Cardona helped the Texters firmed up their hold of third place behind the San Miguel Beermen (12-3) and the Alaska Milk Aces (11-2) with a 10-5 win-loss record.

Cardona knocked in two treys and went 10-of-16 from the two-point zone and 8-of-12 from the stripe for his fifth 30-point game overall in the all-Filipino tourney.

“I was worried coming into this game since Jimmy Alapag and Jarred Dillinger are not 100 percent healthy. I was also wary of Sta. Lucia which has been playing as well as any other team in the league right now.

I was glad we got in sync at the finish and came through,” said Talk n Text coach Chot Reyes.

Reyes fired a career-best 32 points but the Realtors faltered at the finish, thus, moving down to sixth place with a 7-6 card.

Kelly Williams and Joseph Yeo combined for 34 points but both threw bricks in the crunch. Williams finished with a woeful 4-of-18 field-goal shooting and Yeo with a 3-of-14 clip.

The Realtors seemed to have seized control at 102-98 before running into a maze of errors and misses.

Cardona and Alapag knocked in four points each in an eight-to-nothing Talk n Text blitz sending the Texters ahead to stay at 106-102.

Cardona and Reyes engaged in a shootout highlighting the fierce game marked by 13 deadlocks and 18 lead changes.