Games on 26 February:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

5 p.m. --- TNT vs Rain or Shine

7:30 p.m. --- Barangay Ginebra vs NorthPort

Old reliable Justin Brownlee towed Barangay Ginebra into the semifinals after booting out Meralco in Game 3 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals, 94-87, Sunday night at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.

The three-time Best Import winner powered the Kings in overhauling a 13-point second quarter deficit and fueled the pull away in the final canto for the franchise’s sixth straight semis appearance in the conference.

Ginebra, which dropped Game 2, will face in the best-of-seven semis series top seed and elimination round tormentor NorthPort starting 26 February.

Brownlee flirted with a triple-double with 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists to go with two blocks and a steal as he carried the Kings to at least a semis appearance in all his 12 conferences serving the ballclub.

He led Ginebra’s late charge in the second quarter to trim a 19-32 deficit to just one, 37-38, at the intermission.      

“We just needed a spark and playoffs Justin gave us that spark. When we got back to one point at halftime, I think, we were all confident we could win this game,” Kings coach Tim Cone said.

Ginebra has now beaten the Bolts eight of the 10 times they faced in the playoffs. Meralco has yet to defeat the Kings with Brownlee around.

Stephen Holt also came up big for the Kings, scoring 17 points including a crucial trey and a split in the final minute of the game to keep the Bolts at bay.

RJ Abarrientos added 16 points and Troy Rosario scored 12 for Ginebra, which had a sluggish start as Brownlee struggled with just two points in the opening period.   

“It was a little scary there at the beginning. They handled us well. But I thought we were a little bit tight to start the basketball game. We missed some easy shots that we normally would’ve made and that allowed them to stretch their lead,” Cone said.

“It was scary there in the beginning but I felt we were playing well, we were playing hard, we were playing well on defense but we just weren’t making some of the shots we should’ve made.”

The fourth quarter got a little bit tight with Ginebra protecting a slim, 78-74, lead.

Japeth Aguilar energized the Kings with a two-handed alley-oop dunk off a lob pass from Abarrientos that ignited a 10-2 run he punctuated with another rim-rattler for an 88-76 advantage with 2:22 left.

Meralco tried to close the gap with a late fightback and even came to within five, 92-87, after a four-pointer by Akil Mitchell with only 12.1 seconds left before Brownlee sealed it with two charities.

Chris Newsome had 22 points, Bong Quinto got 16 while Cliff Hodge and Chris Banchero added 13 and 12 markers, respectively, for the Bolts.

Mitchell had a terrible night, shooting 2-of-11 from the field for only eight points and added 12 rebounds.

The scores:

GINEBRA (94) --- Brownlee 23, Holt 17, Abarrientos 16, Rosario 12, Thompson 7, J.Aguilar 6, Ahanmisi 6, Cu 5, Malonzo 0

MERALCO (87) --- Newsome 22, Quinto 16, Hodge 13, Banhcero 12, Black 9, Mitchell 8, Rios 5, Almazan 2, Bates 0

Quarters: 19-22, 37-38, 64-58, 94-87