RJ Abarrientos, with all the guts and courage, drilled a booming triple in transition to not only stop a San Miguel rally which cut Ginebra’s lead down to just one but somehow restored order for his team.

Cunning and unconscious.

The rookie embraced the fireman’s role as he spearheaded Barangay Ginebra to its own display of unstoppable offense with a 121-92 victory over San Miguel to move on the verge of Finals return in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo on Friday, Oct. 18.

Abarrientos provided the tip of the spear to the Kings’ attack with a career-best scoring of 28 points – 16 of which came in the second half when he gave his team the much-needed lift to keep it afloat in the face of the Beermen’s fightback.

Scottie Thompson was equally impressive with 22 points, eight rebounds, and five assists as Ginebra did not need another huge scoring night from Justin Brownlee to take a commanding 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven affair.

After exploding for 49 in a losing effort in Game 4, Brownlee happily became the facilitator to his team with 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists while Japeth Aguilar and Maverick Ahanmisi added 15 and 13.

Struggling to find answers to SMB offense the last time out, it was Ginebra’s turn to light it up as the Kings scored at least 29 points in all of the quarters.

Ginebra actually had to buck a slow start when it trailed early in the opening frame before finally getting its bearings going with a blistering 14-0 blast to end the first quarter. The Kings never slowed down from there as Ginebra outscored SMB 29-17 in the second quarter for a 63-50 count at the break.

Refusing to raise the white flag, the Beermen made a huge rally in the third quarter only to be foiled by Abarrientos and company who managed to keep a 92-79 cushion heading into the fourth.

It was all Ginebra from there as it broke the game wide open by outsourcing SMB again 29-13 in the final frame.

EJ Anosike led SMB with 21 points while June Mar Fajardo had a double-double of 17 points and 18 rebounds. Marcio Lassiter and CJ Perez had 16 apiece but they lacked support from their bench.