Meralco put on a defensive clinic in the second half to turn back Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, 83-74, Sunday, April 10 and regain control of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals before a packed crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Down double figures in the first half, the Bolts tightened things up and forced the Gin Kings to miss their shots, particularly from the outside, even as import Tony Bishop took charge to take the win that put them up 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Chris Newsome had his best game of the series, Cliff Hodge’s trademark gung-ho style resulted in several stops while Allein Maliksi redeemed himself from a scoreless Game 2.

A record crowd of 16,104 was at the edge of their seats as the two teams engaged in a defensive struggle which Meralco ended up winning.

“I sound like a broken record sometimes but both teams played really good defense tonight and you can tell that by the score,” said Meralco coach Norman Black.

“It’s very difficult to score out there so it was just a matter of getting some stops and trying to hold on as long as we could,” he added.

Bishop came up with 30 points and 16 rebounds, Newsome breached double figures for the first time in the series by scoring 20 points with 11 rebounds and six assists while Maliksi scored 10 points after being held scoreless in Game 2.

But Black heaped his praises more to Hodge, who despite failing to score a single point left an imprint on the game with defensive effort and hustle.

After falling short on their bid to erase a 20-point deficit in a 99-93 loss last Friday, the Bolts made their rally much earlier after the Gin Kings looked poised to run out of the gates with a 43-30 lead in the second quarter.

But Meralco trimmed the gap to 48-40 at the half before they began to force multiple stops as Ginebra missed several outside shots.

The lead switched hands multiple times during the final two quarters before the Bolts took command with a Newsome triple and Bishop slam in transition resulting in a pair of four-point leads at 73-69 and 75-71 midway into the fourth.

Ginebra could only pull within three, 77-74, on Christian Standhardinger’s three-point play with 5:21 left but missed its final seven shots.

Even Justin Brownlee went cold for the Gin Kings, scoring just six on 2-of-12 from the floor in the second half which made it harder for them to overturn the Bolts’ lead.

Brownlee finished with 19 points with an 8-of-21 clip, spoiling an all-around production that included 15 rebounds, seven assists and six blocks.

The scores:

MERALCO 83 — Bishop 30, Newsome 20, Maliksi 10, Black 8, Almazan 6, Quinto 3, Banchero 2, Hugnatan 2, Baclao 2, Hodge 0.

GINEBRA 74 – Brownlee 19, Standhardinger 17, Thompson 11, Tenorio 11, Chan 9, Pinto 5, Devance 2, Tolentino 0, Mariano 0.

Quarters: 22-27, 40-48, 62-61, 83-74.