MANILA: Meralco dug deep in the stretch and polished off Mahindra with a flourish, and after getting the job done on the floor, got the most welcome news of all.

The Bolts closed out the Enforcers with a 16-0 run to post a 94-86 victory and then got a big push in their drive for a top two finish in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup eliminations when Barangay Ginebra manhandled sister team San Miguel Beer later in the night at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Cliff Hodge dropped 25 points and hauled down 11 boards and rookie Baser Amer had two crucial three-pointers in the fourth for the Bolts, who rose to 7-2 overall to remain in top spot.

Of equal importance for Meralco was the 110-84 victory the Gin Kings posted over the Beermen in the nightcap as it dropped San Miguel Beer to third spot at 5-3. Ginebra improved to 6-4 and more or less kept itself out of qualifying in the bottom half.

The win was crucial for the Kings, who stayed in the middle of the pack and will advance to the quarterfinals in a best-of-three series depending on the outcomes of the final days of the elimination round.

Tournament format calls for the bottom two teams to play those who qualify 1-2, needing to beat the top-ranked teams two times to advance to the Final Four.

And Meralco is chasing that privilege when it closes out its eliminations schedule against Alaska and Ginebra, a win in either likely enough to clinch a twice-to-beat privilege for the over-achieving Bolts.

“This was a big win for us, a very, very tough win,” Meralco coach Norman Black said. “It keeps us in the lead.”

The Enforcers played brilliantly almost the whole night, only to blow cold when they couldn’t afford to as the loss dropped them to 4-5 and put them in very dangerous ground.

The worst thing that could happen to Meralco at this point is to drop into the middle of the pack, which could only happen if the Bolts lose their last two games and San Miguel and Alaska jack up their respective win totals to eight.

Another scenario which could knock Meralco out of the top two is for Alaska to win eight games and San Miguel seven and the Bolts lose their last two. That would put the Bolts in third spot since the Beermen beat them in the elimination round and will win out in the tiebreak.

The Beermen, despite its most lopsided loss under the watch of Leo Austria, can still make a run at No. 1 with a sweep of their last three games. That would give them an 8-3 card and, having beaten the Aces and the Bolts in the eliminations, would go on to bag top-ranking after the elimination round.

San Miguel lost in an ugly manner despite having a complete lineup for the first time in the conference.

Arwind Santos, though still grieving the loss of mom Araceli before the Holy Week, and Ronald Tubid returned from sick bay to rejoin June Mar Fajardo, the reigning two-time MVP, in active status.

And this is the reason, Ginebra’s Tim Cone thinks, why the Beermen played so bad.

“We caught San Miguel at the right time,” Cone told reporters, referring to the return of the three that sort of disrupted the chemistry of San Miguel.

Ginebra opened up a 16-point lead at the half and coasted along the rest of the way, also thanks in part to the foul trouble that San Miguel import Tyler Wilkerson got himself into in the second quarter where he picked up his fourth.

Othyus Jeffers paced the Kings with 22 points and 14 rebounds.