It was close until halftime.

Barangay Ginebra stepped on the gas pedal in the third quarter and never lifted its foot off it to run over skidding Blackwater, 86-63, and get back on the winning track in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup Sunday night at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.

The Kings saw the return of Jamie Malonzo after a nine-month layoff due to a calf injury and the forward contributed big in their third quarter pull away for a 6-3 win-loss record tied with Converge and Hong Kong Eastern.

Ginebra held the Bossing to just 13 points in the third period while pouring 27 to turn its seven-point halftime lead into a 66-45 advantage heading into the final quarter.

“We weren’t shooting the ball well, but we came with our defensive chops tonight. That is something we didn’t show up with, with NorthPort. Tonight, we showed up defensively,” Kings head coach Tim Cone said after his team recovered from a tough three-point loss against the pacesetting Batang Pier last Wednesday.

Ginebra made life difficult for Blackwater, holding the Bossing down to 63 points on 29 percent field goal shooting — a far cry from allowing NorthPort to score 119 on 52 percent shooting from the field.

“We said it in halftime, we only scored 39 points and that was actually less than we scored in the game against NorthPort but we gave up 60 plus points. This time we only gave up 32 (in the first half),” Cone said.

“So, we didn’t shoot the ball well. In fact, I think we missed all of our shots, 0-for-16 from the three-point line until RJ (Abarrientos) sparked us with two towards the end of the second quarter.”

Justin Brownlee led Ginebra with 18 points, seven rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block while Abarrientos added 15 markers. Japeth Aguilar had 10 points and seven rebounds while Maverick Ahanmisi got nine.

Malonzo scored eight points, six in the third quarter including a two-handed slamdunk off a dish from Scottie Thompson for a 62-41 lead with 2:37 left in the third quarter.

“For Jamie himself it’s been a long, long road for him. We’ve watched him from the side and seen the work he’s done so it was just the culmination of the hard work of getting back into the lineup,” Cone said of the athletic forward who logged in 11 minutes on the floor.

Ahanmisi broke the game wide-open with a scooping layup for a 75-50 advantage in the last eight minutes of the game as Cone slowly pulled his starters out and gave his bench minutes.

The Bossing suffered a fourth straight defeat to spiral down to a 1-7 card.

George King scored his usual 27 points and six rebounds but had little help from the local Blackwater crew.

JD Tungcab contributed 10 points while Rey Suerte had nine in garbage time.

The scores:

GINEBRA (86) — Brownlee 18, Abarrientos 15, J.Aguilar 10, Ahanmisi 9, Malonzo 8, Holt 8, Rosario 8, Thompson 5, Pessumal 5, Cu 0, Mariano 0, Adamos 0, Pinto 0.

BLACKWATER (63) — King 27, Tungcab 10, Suerte 9, David 5, Kwekuteye 4, Ponferrada 3, Guinto 2, Montalbo 0, Chua 0, Corteza 0, Hill 0, Casio 0, Jopia 0, Escoto 0.

Quarters: 19-13, 39-32, 66-45, 86-63.