The quarterfinal match-up pitting the No. 1 team against No. 8 saw the winner coming up with a magnificent second half rally.

Barangay Ginebra, the crowd-favorite that has made comebacks its trump card, wasn’t the one that came from behind on Friday night.

Top-ranked Alaska kept its composure during the most trying times and rallied from 16 points down in the third period to prevail, 114-108, to show the Gin Kings the door and grab the first Final Four slot in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Vic Manuel came off the bench only in the third period and drilled in all of his 14 points from there, while Romeo Travis was as steady as he has been as the duo provided the scoring spark that Alaska grappled for almost three-fourths of the way.

And then there was Calvin Abueva, Alaska’s bundle of energy who took some cheap shots with 3:48 left in the third period from the Ginebra bench and members of the coaching staff.

With Ginebra enjoying a 72-61 lead, Abueva was whistled for a foul on Orlando Johnson and was thrown to the floor by a hard shove from LA Tenorio right in front of the Ginebra bench.

While Abueva was trying to stand up, coach Frankie Lim came into contact with the Alaska forward and seemingly gave Abueva a slight nudge on the behind from his foot before appearing to have thrown a slight tap on Abueva’s head.

Technical fouls were given to Abueva, Tenorio, Johnson and Lim all for second motion after game officials reviewed the incident for more than three minutes.

JV Casio made just one of two technical free throws awarded to the Aces, but that was enough to touch off Alaska’s telling burst that had them closing out the third quarter ahead, 77-75.

“It (completion of the rally) happened that it followed that (incident),” Alaska’s Alex Compton told reporters during the winning coach’s interview. “I don’t get into that stuff (physical play), you (media) guys do.

“What I appreciated after was that our guys settled down and played,” he went on. “My players simply showed their character after that incident.”

Ginebra totally lost it after that as the Kings fell behind, 95-85, after the first six minutes of the fourth period, bowing out of the quarterfinal round for the third straight time this season despite having the tallest frontline and one of the most complete teams in the league.

League officials said that they will review the incident after the technical committee – in looking at the game tape after the match – saw the cheap shots that Lim dished out on Abueva.

There’s no love lost between the two as they have faced each other in the NCAA before, when Lim was still calling the shots for multi-titled San Beda and Abueva was the star of San Sebastian.

Travis went on to finish with 29 points, 18 of them coming in the second half, while Sonny Thoss, Dondon Hontiveros and Cyrus Baguio all finished in twin digits and combined for another 37.

Johnson went on to lead the Kings with 28 points, though a chunk of that came during the dying minutes when the game was already in the bag for the Aces. He scored just 10 points in the first three quarters.

Alaska will now await the winner of the Globalport-Star series, which the defending champion Hotshots took to a deciding game after mangling the Batang Pier black-and-blue, 126-73, in the curtain-raiser.

The No. 5 Hotshots made the Batang Pier look like gate-crashers to the playoffs, holding Globalport to just 35 first half points to take a 38-point lead into the third period.

Globalport wasn’t able to make a dent on that the rest of the way, even falling behind by 61 with under five minutes left to be taken into a rubber match Sunday afternoon.

“If I knew, I would bottle it and sell it for a million bucks to the NBA,” coach Tim Cone said when asked of the formula for the win that humiliated the Batang Pier, to say the least.

“We came up with a big punch early, and it staggered them,” he said.

Globalport’s loss was the most one-sided in the long history of the PBA, giving the Hotshots all the momentum they need for the KO match.