There’s always a first time for everything, and Meralco coach Norman Black couldn’t have asked for more significance in their breakthrough win over Alaska.

Jimmy Alapag starred in the endgame for the Bolts on Friday night, leading them to a 107-101 victory over the Aces in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao that sealed the franchise’s first-ever twice-to-beat advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Alapag, the heady 5-foot-8 point guard who has made endgame takeovers as his trump card, scored seven straight points that snapped a 98-all tie to rescue Meralco from collapsing as the Bolts will end classification phase in second place at worst if they lose to Barangay Ginebra next week.

“It’s nice beating Alaska for the first time,” Black, who took over for the Bolts at the start of the previous season, told reporters later. “And this is also the first time that we (Meralco) gained twice-to-beat. So this is pretty special.”

The Bolts were in command practically all night but bungled a nine-point lead late in the fourth quarter, the Alaska rally allowing the Aces to knot it all up at 98-all after a Cyrus Baguio triple going into the final 3:16.

But Alapag had other things in mind and was perfectly at home with the go-to-guy’s role.

Those seven straight points all came in a span of less than two minutes and featured five free throws and a left-handed layup that saw him lose Alaska import Shane Edwards with a crossover dribble.

He sealed the deal with the last two of those freebies with 19.5 seconds remaining off Calvin Abueva’s final foul, 105-100, before Ryan Buenafe connected on two more charities to round out scoring for the Aces.

Arinze Onuaku, Meralco’s burly import, had 28 points and 19 rebounds, totally outplaying counterpart Edwards, who was good for just 12 points and seven boards.

In the first game, GlobalPort exited the conference in style after bringing down Phoenix Petroleum, 125-118, which eliminated the Fuel Masters from further contention.

Import Shawn Taggart scored 45 points and hauled down 18 rebounds and Terrence Romeo left an indelible mark as the tournament’s best local scorer with 40 as the Batang Pier – out of it all since last week – closed out with a 3-8 record and took some measure of respect into a long off-season.

The game also saw GlobalPort try out a new coach in assistant team manager and former cager Johnedel Cardel.

Pido Jarencio, who steered the Batang Pier to its first-ever Final Four appearance in the last Philippine Cup, and Eric Gonzales, who is listed as his assistant, were present on the bench but were reportedly asked to just watch.

Cardel, during the winning coach’s interview, said that Jarencio, whose father Ben passed away less than two weeks ago, had an attack of gout recently and couldn’t supervise practice of the Batang Pier.

Gonzales, also according to Cardel, was asked to concentrate on his duties as head coach of Phoenix in the D-League where it has a 2-1 lead over Café France in the race-to-three championship series.

“I will remember this forever,” Cardel told reporters. He, however, refused to say that he will be taking over the team full time when the season-ending Governors’ Cup opens in late July.

“I don’t know. I was just asked to take over yesterday (Thursday) during practice,” Cardel, a five-year veteran of three teams in a short playing career, said. “What I know is that the team will have a three-week break before we prepare for the (Governors’ Cup).”

Taggart made 15-of-26 attempts from the field, counting two from three-point zone and connected on 13-of-17 free throws in s solid performance.

Phoenix dropped to 3-7 with a game against powerhouse San Miguel Beer remaining on Sunday.

The Fuel Masters were led by the 21 points of RR Garcia. Import Kevin Pinkney was miserable all night, shooting just 11 points and grabbing only seven rebounds.