MANILA: Jarrid Famous came up with numbers befitting his big frame on Sunday afternoon and helped Globalport inch closer to a place the Batang Pier have never been to before.

Famous grabbed 37 rebounds and scored 30 points, helping the Batang Pier overcome a hard-fighting KIA Motors crew, 102-94, to move within another win of claiming a twice-to-beat privilege in the first round of the PBA Governors’ Cup playoffs at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

The 6-foot-11 import won out in his personal duel with 7-foot-2 KIA reinforcement Hamady N’Diyae and anchored the Batang Pier to their sixth win in 10 games to rise to solo fourth spot at the moment with a game left in their elimination round schedule.

It was the second straight win for Globalport, who also got 27 points from leading local scorer Terrence Romeo and 10 from super rookie Stanley Pringle.

Globalport has never made it past the quarterfinals in its three years in the league and it can have a great chance of making the Final Four with a win over Alaska later in the week as it would assure the Batang Pier of a distinct advantage in the first round.

“The players really wanted to win this one because it kept us on track towards a top four finish,” Globalport coach Pido Jarencio said in Filipino.

And while the road remained rosy for the Batang Pier, crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra’s chances of even advancing past this phase was put in great peril after Meralco scored a 102-99 win in the second game.

Playing with a lot of pride against the biggest team in the tournament, the under-sized Bolts got Andre Emmet going in the second half to score the come-from-behind win that practically put Meralco in the quarterfinals with a 5-4 record.

The loss was a bitter one for the Gin Kings, who showed up against the smallest team in the tournament and failed to pull out the stops when the game was on the line in the dying minutes.

Emmet, the globe-trotting veteran who plays cool even under severe pressure, scored 12 points in the fourth period, including the last three inside the final 32.2 seconds that broke the game’s last tie at 99 forged by a Japeth Aguilar triple.

“That was a thrilling, gutsy win,” Norman Black, the multititled coach trying to give Meralco its first title, said.

“It was a great game between two teams needing a win because we know that the loser would have to fight for his life (the rest of the elimination round),” he continued. “I thought overall that it was a gutsy effort on our part.”

Ginebra had a chance to forge overtime, having possession with still 16.2 seconds remaining after Emmet split his charities off a foul by Ginebra’s Asian import Kim Ji-wan.

Despite coming off a timeout for the potential game-tying play, Ginebra found most of its options clogged by the swarming Meralco defense as Solomon Mercado tossed up a triple from way out that was a bit too hard at the buzzer.

It was the second straight defeat in a 3-6 card for the Kings, one of the pre-tournament favorites whose impressive run of 24 straight playoff appearances now hinge greatly on victories in their last two games.

But even if Ginebra won over Barako Bull and ousted NLEX, the Kings are still not assured of advancing since they will wind up with a 5-6 record and, if they end up tied with Meralco, would lose out for a slot by virtue of the winner-over-the-other rule.

Emmet finished with 34 points and four others tossed in twin digits for Black, who won a Grand Slam with San Miguel in 1989 and is doing a great job making this squad win over much larger sides.

Orlando Johnson paced the Kings with 25 markers and Greg Slaughter added 21 with Aguilar finished with 18 points and 12 boards in one of his most impressive performances that went down the drain.

As things stand, San Miguel Beer and Alaska, which have 7-2 slates, are pretty much assured of finishing in the top four, while Blackwater and NLEX have bowed out of contention with 2-8 and 1-8 records, respectively.