The mighty ball club held Powerade to a pathetic 17.6 percent shooting in the first quarter, and the Llamados limited scoring champion Gary David to his lowest output in five conferences Wednesday night in a 97-80 victory in the Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

The team that collected high pre-season expectations finally performed like one, limiting David to merely seven points while forcing the Tigers to miss 60 of their 91 shots in a splendid defensive job that steered B-Meg to registering its second win in five games.

On a night when Ginebra once more came back from the verge of disaster, David was only good for seven points, his lowest in a Powerade uniform. He went scoreless in the first half and shot just 3-of-13 from the field, and his production was his lowest since scoring only five on Nov. 6, 2009 during the Commissioner’s Cup while he was still with Burger King.

“We did a great job on Gary,” said B-Meg head coach Tim Cone.

What made the effort more surprising was that a player known for his offense was the one who clamped down on David.

PJ Simon broke loose from his single-dimensional approach and defended David with flying colors. David just shot 3-of-13 from the floor.

“He came out to be a committed defender,” Cone said of Simon.

JV Casio, the No. 1 pick in the Draft, also struggled. He could only produce five points on 1-of-9 shooting. In his debut against Ginebra last Saturday, the former De La Salle star only had three points.

Simon didn’t shine on defense alone. He paced the Llamados with 21 points, while James Yap added 20. Joe Devance added 11 points and 10 rebounds, Mark Barroca collected a career-high 11 points, while Josh Urbiztondo had 10 assists, nine points and five rebounds.

“Josh (Urbizrtondo) and Mark (Barroca) pressuring their guards set the tempo on us,” said Cone.

The Kings, meantime, booked their third win in classic fashion again, rallying from a five-point deficit with 55.2 seconds left to play and keeping Shopinas.com winless in a 94-90 triumph in overtime.

Jay-Jay Helterbrand knocked in a cold-blooded three-point shot with 15.9 seconds to go, and himself sealed the outcome with two free throws in the last 5.1 seconds of the extra period as Ginebra pulled off another miraculous victory reflecting its never-say-die attitude.

Ginebra also fought back from a similar situation just days ago – a five-point deficit in the final 55.6 seconds against Powerade last Saturday in Victorias City, Negros Occidental. But that one didn’t have to go through overtime after Mark Caguioa came up with a follow-up as time expired, 73-72.

“Those are things that you can’t explain,” said Ginebra coach Siot Tanquingcen of the team’s epic back-to-back wins. “We just have to trust each other. It (win) was God’s grace.” Shopinas.com took a 79-74 lead after RJ Jazul connected on two free throws with 55.2 seconds remaining in regulation. But Caguioa hit a left corner jumper seconds later before Helterbrand swooshed in the overtime-sending triple.

The Clickers, on the other hand, bungled four straight free throws — two each from Jazul and Elmer Espiritu – in the final 47 seconds.

In overtime, the Kings scored the first seven points, and the Clickers never really had a solid chance at winning the game. They came closest at 92-90 on a triple from Jazul, before Helterbrand was fouled for two charities.

Marcio Lassiter led the Tigers with 15 points in an effort coming off the bench, while Doug Kramer had 10 rebounds and eight points.

The key factor for the victory came right from the start. After B-Meg dropped behind 5-2 that necessitated a time-out, the Llamados fought back with a 9-0 blast, five from James Yap. When the opening period ceased, B-Meg was already ahead by 24-9.

Yet the assault didn’t stop there. The Llamados led by as high as 29 points (54-25), and everything but the final count seemed to have been already settled.

Until Powerade came to life.

Behind Lassiter, the Tigers drastically slashed the imposing deficit to just within 74-65 with 7:07 left to play.

But Urbiztondo drilled in a triple, and then fed Simon for a rainbow-territory conversion and a fastbreak lay-up as the Llamados finally sealed the outcome, 82-65 with only 5:50 to go in the contest.

Powerade fell to 2-3 (win-loss) and dropped its second straight game.