MANILA, 12 June 2006 — Look who’s leading now.

Barangay Ginebra, a team whose core watches games in civvies from behind the bench, got a lot from its often-laughed at reserves last night for a 95-87 victory that put the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinal series in their favor, 2-1.

Eric Menk scored 26 points and had 14 rebounds and Mark Macapagal and Allan Salangsang did a lot of damage in the endgame as the Gin Kings won for the second straight night, this time, in front of 15,408 spectators.

Ginebra led by as many as 17 points early in the third period and had to fight hard to hold off the charging Barako in the fourth behind timely hits by Macapagal and Salangsang.

And the team most everyone thought was inferior to the Red Bull standard has first crack of wrapping this series up when Game 4 is played Wednesday night also at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Macapagal, who walked into tryouts during the short off-season, scored 21 points for the second straight night, all but four in the second half. His booming triple late in the game restored a 10-point lead for the Kings, 84-74, before a Salangsang finger-roll totally doused cold water on the blazing Red Bull rally.

Salangsang, short for a forward but slow to be a guard, hit 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds and the Kings did not really feel a vacuum when Mark Caguioa was effectively clamped down upon by the Red Bull defense to finish with only 11 markers.

Edgar Echavez was the fifth player to score in twin digits for Tanquingcen.

Coca-Cola again put itself in position to win and made all the right plays this time around to escape with a 77-75 victory over Alaska and extend their separate quarterfinal pairing.

The Tigers botched up Willie Miller in the crucial stages of the endgame to take the first of three steps needed in reversing this best-of-five series that has been dominated by the Aces.

Coke can now gun for the equalizer on Wednesday, just 1-2 down and showing the capabilities of being able to play the endgame right to seal a win. Ali Peek scored 20 points to pace the Tigers, and John Arigo chipped in with 16, a good sign, Favis said, which could work for his team for the remainder of the series.

Nic Belasco, the hero in the Game 1 win by the Aces, also shot 20 points to lead all Alaska shooters.

Jeffrey Cariaso added 14 and Mike Cortez had a quiet night by shooting only 13.