Nate Brumfield completed a three-point play with 18.3 seconds remaining in the game, and then pulled down a key offensive rebound 14 seconds later, lifting Barangay Ginebra to a heart-stopping 97-96 win over favored guest team Smart-Gilas in Game 1 of their best-of-five semifinal series Friday night at the Araneta Coliseum.

The shorter in the battle between two dominant imports, Brumfield delivered the points and the play that mattered toward the end. He converted an off-balanced shot made even harder since the attempt was heaved while on the run, sank the bonus charity for a 97-95 Kings’ lead, and then capped his heroics by hustling for the rebound when Willie Miller, the two-time MVP, missed two free throws in the last 4.4 seconds.

Brumfield finished with 31 points and 13 rebounds, putting Ginebra in a position no one seemed to have imagined after going through a tough best-of-three quarterfinals series against Rain or Shine.

“It’s really hard to play Gilas,” said Ginebra coach Jong Uichico.

“You have to defend many players. The (Ginebra) players really fought for every play and it was a good thing nasuklian ‘yung effort namin.”

Douthit, the Nationals’ intimidating 6-foot-11 naturalized player who was a doubtful starter for the match, stepped onto the hard court sporting a wrap on his right hand after injuring it in Smart-Gilas’ final elimination round game against Meralco.

And he nearly came close to bailing the team out of its miseries in a game that witnessed 20 lead changes and 14 deadlocks.

Douthit, however, bungled the front-end of his charities with 5.1 seconds left, and the Nationals failed to tie the game, 97-96. The team had no choice but to foul Miller, but took the box-out situation lightly and paid the price for it very dearly that allowed Brumfield to sneak in and collar the offensive board before swiftly heaving the ball out to Rudy Hatfield.

Overall, Smart-Gilas split charities in the final 28 seconds.

“You cannot win games if you miss free throws in the end,” said Smart-Gilas coach Rajko Toroman. “And our outside players didn’t play well. But you can expect a much better play from us on Sunday. I don’t know if it will be enough to win, but I don’t think we will play much worse than today.”

There wasn’t any surprise, on the other hand, in the other semifinals pairing.

Talk ’N Text held off a comeback Air21 is fast becoming to be a master at, hanging on late in the game to eke out a 97-90 victory for a similar 1-0 lead.

Paul Harris poured in 31 points and snatched 14 rebounds, and Ranidel De Ocampo came off the bench to produce 27 points – his conference high — and 12 rebounds as the Texters, the No. 1 seed, extended their winning streak to nine games this conference and beat the Express for the ninth straight time, too, in a span of nearly three years.

Talk ’N Text’s last and only defeat so far in the tournament came last April 2, a 103-98 loss to Smart-Gilas in its opening game. The Texters also have not lost to the Express since a 112-111 result on June 13, 2008 in the second round eliminations of the Fiesta Conference.

“We were aware that their (Express) second unit plays a big role,” said TNT coach Chot Reyes. “That’s why we challenged our second unit to come out and play hard. And I think that was the story tonight.”

While the Texters indeed got more production from their players coming off the bench (47-35), Air21 coach Bong Ramos thought otherwise.

“We tried our best, nakapag-adjust naman kami, napakataas lang talaga ng turnovers namin. Napakalakas nila para mag-turnover kami palagi,” Ramos said.

Air21, the franchise with the fewest average errors an outing (14.7), committed 19 that resulted to 17 turnover points for Talk ‘N Text.

Three times in the ball game, Talk ’N Text led by 21 points, and three times in the contest, the Texters couldn’t shake the Express off.

The last time the Texters had that imposing advantage was at 80-59.

And then, Air21 mounted a comeback now a familiar muscle the ball club flexes after its stunning series win against the Alaska Aces in the quarter-finals.

Josh Urbiztonto, perhaps the player most instrumental for the Express in the previous stage, pushed Air21 back into the game with his fourth triple, 91-84, and with plenty of time left at 5:18.

But Harris scored back-to-back baskets, and TNT held Air21 scoreless in a span of three-and-a-half minutes. The next time the Express scored again was from another triple this time by Wynne Arboleda with 1:45 left to play before Alpha Bangura connected on a jumper from the left corner 31 seconds later to make it a 95-89 ball game.

Both teams never converted a field goal since then. Jimmy Alapag and Harris each had splits from the charity line while Bangura also had a split, and Air21 bungled chances to come closer with a pair of missed three-point attempts from Danny Seigle and Dondon Hontiveros.

Bangura paced the Express with 23 points, while Seigle added 15.

Hontiveros was the one missing for Air21, contributing only six points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field.

TNT played without Jared Dillinger, who underwent surgery in the US for a separated shoulder. He is expected to be back during the playoffs of the Governors’ Cup.

Mark Caguioa added 16 points and Hatfield had 13 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists for the Kings.

Douthit ended up with 31 points, a personal conference best, and 16 rebounds for Smart-Gilas, the No. 2 seed after the short nine-game elimination round. Marnel Baracael contributed 21 points while Chris Tiu, back after missing the team’s last game in the preliminary round due to a left shoulder injury, collected 12 points and eight rebounds.

Tiu was the one who broke the last deadlock at 94 with a split in the last 28 seconds.