MANILA: After coming off a huge meltdown over the weekend, Air21 on Wednesday night held on against the team that has made comebacks its life.

The Express nearly blew a 10-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter, hanging on to win this time by nipping Barangay Ginebra, 97-95, to stay in the upper half of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup standings at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Air21 was under siege the whole of the final frame but pulled out the stops when it needed to as the Express improved to a level 3-3 card while shoving the Gin Kings deep in the standings at 2-4.

“It’s nice to beat a quality team like Ginebra,” Air21 coach Franz Pumaren told reporters, clearly aware that they put the Gin Kings into a precarious situation of needing to sweep their remaining three assignments to get above .500.

“We survived their run,” Pumaren said of the Kings, who came within a point several times, the last at 95-96 after a Billy Mamaril short stab going into the final 18.7 seconds. “Good thing we were able to regroup.

“Hopefully, this will be a good take off point for our remaining games,” continued Pumaren. “It would have been tough had we lost this game.”

Air21 and the Kings came into the contest tied at 2-3 and the win gave the Express a clear shot at contending for a spot in a best-of-three series in the first round of the playoffs.

The loss — and granting that Ginebra doesn’t sweep its last assignments — put the Kings on track towards finishing in the lower half of the bracket which would mean beating a top two seed twice in the quarterfinals to advance.

Ginebra stuck with a lineup that didn’t have import Leon Rodgers, Mark Caguioa, LA Tenorio and No. 1 rookie pick Greg Slaughter on the floor in the fourth period.

Rodgers actually saw action only in the final 4.8 seconds when the Kings were gunning to forge overtime after Wesley Witherspoon nailed a free throw for 97-95 off a Japeth Aguilar foul.

Rodgers, who has been rumored to be on the way out at least three games ago, took the last shot for the Kings only for his short stab off the glass to rim out at the buzzer.

“Yes, I was surprised that they put their import in with that little time left and (Rodgers) being on the bench for the whole of the fourth quarter,” Pumaren said.

Caguioa banged his head on the floor in one physical play with Witherspoon late in the third period and couldn’t come back.

Tenorio, meanwhile, wasn’t having a really good game that forced assistant coach Junno Sauler to stick with relief point guard Josh Urbiztondo in the fourth period.

Slaughter, on the other hand, had 12 points and six rebounds in 29 minutes.

Witherspoon led the Express with 25 points, his scoring affected a lot by jetlag. He arrived just four days ago and scored 44 points in his debut during that heartbreaking loss to Meralco where Air21 blew a 20-point lead at the start of the fourth period.

“You can see that his shooting touch is being affected by jetlag only now,” Pumaren said. “That’s why I commend my players for playing so hard. It was a collective effort on their part.”

Rodgers finished with 18 points in possibly his last PBA game, with Aguilar contributing 15.

Another import who is reportedly on the way out is Alexander McLean, who still played his heart out and led Rain or Shine to a 96-79 plastering of Meralco earlier in the night.

McLean scored 23 points and had 16 rebounds, and Jeff Chan finished with 21 as the Elasto Painters checked a two-game slide to improve to 2-3 and deal the Bolts their third loss against the same number of wins.

Devon Wayne Chism is already available for the Painters, who will decide on McLean’s fate on Thursday.

Brian Butch, the Meralco import who exploded for 40 points and 31 rebounds, finished with just 11 points and 13 boards because of severe dehydration.

Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio said that his status will also be deliberated upon since his replacement, Darnell Jackson, is already in town and ready to suit up.