Sta. Lucia Realty rallied from a 10-point deficit to score a 100-90 win over Alaska Sunday night in the 2008-09 Motolite-PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.

Anthony Johnson fired a game-high 40 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Realtors which bounced back from a disappointing loss to San Miguel Beer last Thursday.

“It’s nice to get a win after coming off a tough loss to San Miguel,” said head coach Boyet Fernandez, who also drew 18 markers from the rejuvenated Marlou Aquino in the game.

“AJ (Johnson) has been the driving force of the team but the locals also did their share and it was really a total team effort,” added Fernandez, whose wards improved to 4-2.

Sta. Lucia blew a 19-point lead in their 92-98 loss to the Beermen and last night, it is the team’s turn to overhaul a double-digit lead and come away with the victory.

The Aces were threatening to break the game wide open after posting an 82-72 lead but Sta. Lucia clamped down on Alaska and unload its own 13-0 blast to reclaim the lead, 85-82 with 6:36 left in the game.

LA Tenorio and Willie Miller each banged in a triple to put the lead back to Alaska, 88-85, but Aquino hit back-to-back baskets that sandwiched Miler’s split free throw to tie the game for the last time at 89-all, 4:01 left.

After Reynel Hugnat split his own free throws to give Alaska its last taste of the lead at 90-89, the Realtors scored the last 11 points of the match and held the Aces without any production to carve out the impressive win.

“This is a battle of the top two defensive teams in the league so which team gets the stops will win and I’m glad we were able to blank Alaska in the last three minutes of the game,” said Fernandez, who also got 16 markers form Dennis Miranda.

Miller led Alaska with 20 points while Rosell Ellis contributed 16 markers, 14 rebounds and seven assists. The Aces fell to 2-4.

Alaska head coach Tim Cone was thrown out in the last 30 seconds of the game for incurring two technical fouls after questioning a non-call on Tenorio’s drive in the previous play.

Bulls shock Tropang Texters

Barako Bull meanwhile pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in league history after shocking the All-Filipino champion Talk ‘N Text, 135-133, to notch its second in six games.

The Energy Boosters trailed by as much as 24 points early in the fourth quarter but they refused to give up and relied on Jojo Duncil’s two free throws in the last 5.5 seconds of the game to complete the mind-boggling rally.

Scooter McFadgon led all scorers with 37 points to lead the Barako Bull while Gabby Espinas and Paolo Hubalde chipped in 17 and 16 markers respectively for coach Leo Issac.

“Hindi naman masama tsumamba, libre lang naman kaya kunin na natin,” said Isaac.

Tiras Wade led Tropang Texters with 33 markers while Mark Cardona and Jimmy Alapag added 19 point apiece. Talk ‘N Text slid to 2-3.