It’s now down to a race to three wins.

Resident import Justin Brownlee rescued Barangay Ginebra from a near meltdown in a 71-70 nail-biter of a win over TNT for the equalizer in Game 2 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup finals Sunday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The three-time Best Import winner scored the Kings’ last four points to save his team after squandering an 15-point lead to level the best-of-seven series to 1-1.

Game 3 is on Wednesday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Brownlee finished with 35 points including the go-ahead pair of free throws with 46.9 seconds left in the ballgame and pulled down 11 rebounds.  

“Since the start of the series, coach (Tim Cone) has been saying it’s gonna be a defensive series and you know in some games you’ll gonna have to win ugly,” Brownlee said of the game that Ginebra controlled for most of the match before TNT made a scare with under four minutes left.    

“I think it’s a perfect example tonight. A low-scoring game, 71-70. I think if want to continue our success in this series, it’s gonna be important we use all our effort we can on defense and just try to I guess make the game ugly,” he added.

Scottie Thompson, who dodged the bullet after a late turnover that gave the Tropang Giga one last attempt for a game-winner, had 16 markers, 12 boards and seven assists.

RR Pogoy connected a trey to give TNT its first taste of the lead, 68-67, with less than four minutes left before Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added two more charities for a three-point advantage in the last 2:31 of the game to cap a 14-3 rally.

Brownlee drove hard for an acrobatic reverse layup before hitting his foul shots in their next possession to put the Kings back on top.

Ginebra clamped down on defense in the Tropang Giga's last possession, hounding Hollis-Jefferson, who never had a chance to throw a shot as time expired.

Ginebra built a 15-point separation, 34-19, after a Thompson layup to start the third quarter. TNT, however, ended its offensive woes by outscoring the Kings in the period, 26-22, to head into the last canto with a manageable nine-point deficit.  

TNT lost the shooting touch it flaunted in Game 1 as it threw one brick after another in the first half. The Tropang Giga went 8-of-41 from the field in the first 24 minutes of the game including an atrocious 2-of-22 field goal clip in the second quarter.

Only Glenn Khobuntin scored in the second canto, converting two baskets out of six attempts. Hollis-Jefferson after scoring 23 points in the first half of the series opener was limited to just seven before the intermission.

The Tropang Giga converted only one triple out of 20 tries in the first half as they trailed the Kings, 32-19, at halftime.

Hollis-Jefferson scored 25 points and 15 rebounds while Rey Nambatac and Pogoy had 14 and 11 markers, respectively, in a combined 9-of-21 field goal shooting.

The scores:

GINEBRA (71) --- Brownlee 35, Thompson 16, J.Aguilar 8, Holt 7, Rosario 2, Ahanmisi 2, Malonzo 0, Cu 0

TNT (70) --- Hollis-Jefferson 25, Nambatac 14, Pogoy 11, Erram 6, Oftana 5, Khobuntin 4, Williams 2, Razon 2, Aurin 1, Heruela 0

Quarters: 21-15, 32-19, 54-45, 71-70