MANILA: Five nights after being labeled Barangay Ginebra’s goat, David Noel made up for his shortcomings in a huge way.

And he did it by making more than just free throws.

Noel was the veritable blade that slit San Miguel’s collective throat Monday night, hitting the baskets that truly told in the stretch to key a 106-98 victory by the Gin Kings at the Araneta Coliseum that moved Ginebra to within a victory of retaining the Fiesta Cup.

The high-flying former North Carolina mainstay in the US NCAA hit 13 critical points in the fourth period, finishing with 29 for the night to give the Kings a 3-2 lead in the rugged best-of-seven series and complete a mercurial rise for the team which labored hard in the bottom of the standings early in the eliminations.

But he didn’t do it all, actually, getting a lot of help from Eric Menk, who had nine of his 19 in the fourth period, most of them buckets that helped preserve Noel’s heroics which pushed San Miguel’s back hard against the wall.

And should the Kings go all the way — they have two shots to nail down the title starting tomorrow — this tournament would become very special for Noel, who recently turned down an invitation to play in the NBA Summer League for the New York Knicks.

“David is a competitor. He does not want to leave a bad taste — though we’re all human — he wants to redeem himself from that,” coach Jong Uichico said of his import’s three free throw misses in the stretch of Game 4 which could have given the Kings a 3-1 lead last Wednesday.

“And he made up for it really, playing an all around game.”

Noel also had 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals with his baskets coming from inside and out, and of course, from the free throw line, where he made all three attempts given him in the fourth period.

“You like to be up 3-2, but we all know what San Miguel is capable of doing,” Uichico said with caution. “We hope we can play better on Wednesday (in Game 6). We hope can get luckier on Wednesday.”

Ginebra had complete command early on, leading by as many as 16 points in the first half before being threatened in the third by giving up 26 points to the Beermen. From a 56-42 lead at the half, the Kings took to the fourth quarter ahead by just three.

Ronald Tubid started the Ginebra onslaught, completing a rare four-point play off Dondon Hontiveros before Eric Menk and Noel took over, alternating to hit the shots that stung the Beermen the most.

From a 78-73 lead, Menk hit a short stab before Noel hit 10 straight points and Menk a free throw which made it 91-77 that proved to be the back-breaker.

San Miguel never came closer than five points after that.

Playing with sneakers borrowed from Sunday Salvacion after the sole of his Nike cracked open, Menk then canned four straight points and Noel followed this up with a three-point play that took Gabriel Freeman out of the game for 98-89.

Freeman played on borrowed time the whole night, committing his first two fouls in the first six minutes of the first period, his third early in the second before fouling out with that foul on Noel with 3:01 left.

The Best Import awardee finished with just 16 points and 10 rebounds for San Miguel and was badly outclassed again.

Chico Lanete was big off the bench for Ginebra, making three triples in a five-minute stint in the second period to touch off a Ginebra breakaway that had the Kings taking a a 60-42 lead.

Jay-Jay Helterbrand played despite an aching left hamstring, finishing with nine points, five rebounds and four assists despite being played for only 32 minutes. Good thing about it is that he can again go all out in the potential series-clinching game tomorrow.

“We’ll need a hell of a game on Wednesday, because they will go all out,” Uichico said of San Miguel. “We also would want to go all out and get this over with.”

San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen just tried to shrug off the loss.

“We dug a hole so deep and hurt ourselves with that,” Tanquingcen said, pointing to the 18-point deficit in the first half.