MANILA: For coaches that drew first blood in the respective Fiesta Cup quarterfinal series last night, both Barangay Ginebra’s Jong Uichico and Magnolia’s Siot Tanquingcen seemed worried more than anything else.

“It was really a grind out there, we had to work for everything,” Uichico said just minutes after steering his Gin Kings to a come-from-behind 92-90 win over a Sta. Lucia squad that also did not want to quit at the Cuneta Astrodome.

“Everyone has to step up and we need to do a better job on Wednesday if we want to get this over with. We barely scraped through tonight because Sta. Lucia really dominated the game.”

Mark Caguioa tossed in 10 of his night-high 30 points in the fourth period and the Kings survived a whirlwind Sta. Lucia finish that almost saw the Realtors erase a 10-point deficit heading into the final 3:49 behind leading MVP bet Kelly Williams.

Chris Alexander added 19 points, 15 boards and three swats and Junthy Valenzuela rebounded from a lethargic first half to hit crucial buckets in the fourth and aid the Ginebra victory, the Kings’ 10th in their last 12 meetings with the Realtors dating back to the 2006 edition of this tournament.

Williams scored 12 points inside a three-minute span that had the Realtors creeping to within 87-90 from that 10-point hole as the Kings needed a defensive breakdown from Sta. Lucia and two Caguioa free throws in the final 5.1 seconds to seal the win.

Protecting that three-point lead, Caguioa stepped to the stripe for the last time after Valenzuela secured a long rebound off his own three-point miss, denying the Realtors the chance to tie the game.

Valenzuela shot all of his eight points in the fourth, including a triple coming off the bench with 7:39 remaining that touched off a 12-0 run and shoved the Kings to that 10 points lead. Ginebra trailed by as many as 13 early, 6-19, as the Realtors started out hot and played with the defense that keyed their Philippine Cup triumph over the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants a few months back. “We really have to play with a lot of energy right from the start,” Uichico told scribes. “We really have to out-hustle them because I really feel that this will be the key to this series.”

Having the privilege of two imports is what gives Coca-Cola an advantage against the rest of the field. Sad thing about it is, those two imports could also prove to be the reasons why the Tigers will fail to move past the quarterfinals, and why Tanquingcen knows that his Beverage Masters still don’t have their series in the bag.

Magnolia held import Jason Dixon to his worst performance and Coca-Cola’s new import Brandon Dean turned out to be a dud in his first game in a 108-96 victory over the Tigers earlier.

Coming into the game with averages of 22.6 points and 11.7 rebounds, the man-mountain Dixon was held to just six and seven and Dean to a harmless eight points.

“We somehow played good defense and caught him on a bad night at the same time,” said Tanquingcen of Dixon’s lethargic effort. “We tried our best to contain him. But it would be hard to stop him, there’s really no way to stop him. I think all players have an off-night.”

The Beverage Masters can move on to the best-of-seven semifinals against the Air21 Express with another win on Wednesday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City , while Red Bull is on the wings waiting for the winner of the Sta. Lucia-Ginebra series.

Lordy Tugade and Amal McCaskill each scored 20 points for the Beverage Masters, who led by as many as 16 points in the first half and by 17 late in the fourth quarter.

Three other players contributed twin digit scores for Magnolia with Mike Cortez shooting 18 and Dondon Hontiveros and Danny Ildefonso adding 13 each.

The Beverage Masters actually overcame the absence of Danny Seigle, who is still recovering from a mild strained quadriceps.

Tugade shot 6-of-11 from the field and pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds, four more than McCaskill and five better than what Dixon and Dean could come up with. Asi Taulava had 20 points and 12 rebounds and Nic Belasco added 17 points for the Tigers, who are in danger of getting eliminated in the quarterfinals for the second straight conference after losing to the Alaska Aces in the Philippine Cup.

In all, four local players contributed in twin digits for the Tigers. But without their imports to lead them, their efforts proved meaningless.