MANILA: GlobalPort, after four years in the PBA, is now one of the big boys.

In a controversial way, the Batang Pier on Sunday night crashed a Final Four party for the first time in their pro lives by chopping down hulking Barangay Ginebra, 84-83, in overtime, before a horde of pro-Gin Kings fans that didn’t want to accept defeat at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

Stanley Pringle scored the final GlobalPort basket with under a minute left for a four-point lead, 84-80, and then sealed the high-wire win when he held for possession for almost the last eight seconds which raised a howl of protest from Ginebra coaching staff and its legion of loyal followers.

“It’s a break of the game, and we got it in the end,” GlobalPort coach Pido Jarencio told Arabnews, referring to what should have been a ball-hogging violation called on his prized guard Pringle that would have left at least two seconds on the clock for the Gin Kings to map out a final game-winning play.

Japeth Aguilar had just made a short stab for what turned out to be the final score, and GlobalPort made an inbounds play with eight seconds remaining, protecting that one-point lead.

Tim Cone ordered a trap on whoever the receiver would be, and a triple team did pin Pringle near halfcourt. But the GlobalPort guard hung on to the ball by pivoting his way out of the trap, giving the ball to Keith Jensen with just more than a second left in the game clock for what appeared to be a clear violation.

“I thought the referees did not call that (ball-hogging violation) because during the trap, it was clear that Stanley was fouled several times,” Jarencio explained. “Maybe the referees just let the players play.”

The win put GlobalPort in a semifinal series for the first time, and on the opposite side with be Alaska.

That series, which will be a best-of-seven affair for a seat in the championship playoffs, will start January 4 at the earliest.

Pringle finished with 25 points and backcourt buddy Terrence Romeo scattered 23, including the first basket of extension, a booming triple that beat the shotclock, as the Batang Pier broke the game’s last tie at 74.

Billy Mamaril was the big man that shone the brightest in the stretch of regulation and in overtime, forging the extra five minutes by connecting on a running jumper off the glass off the outstretched defense of the 7-foot Greg Slaughter.

Certainly, it was a painful way for the Ginebra campaign to end as the Gin Kings came into the game seeking to follow up on a classic 92-89 overtime victory over Star in their first phase match up on Friday.

There were reports as of this writing that Ginebra is planning to put the outcome under protest. Though none was forwarded at press time, league officials said that coaching staff has until 12 noon of Monday to do so.

A big crowd again watched the Kings – undoubtedly the team of the masses – for the second straight game.

And unlike against Star when a few hundred of them trooped to the exits while Ginebra trailed the Hotshots with still under five minutes remaining, the fans refused to leave the venue trying to plead the result with game officials together with Cone and his coaching staff.

Outside the venue when the fans finally left, they booed and jeered every GlobalPort player that came out of the coliseum to make their way to their respective vehicles. Pringle, understandably so, drew the loudest jeers.

Meanwhile, Rain or Shine and TNT, winners of their first phase assignments, play their version of a KO game on Monday at 7 p.m. also at the Pasay venue for the right to face defending champion San Miguel Beer.

The Beermen, the No. 2 seeds behind Alaska, have been waiting in the wings for an opponent like the Aces.

Rain or Shine bundled out Blackwater and the Tropang Texters eliminated NLEX on Saturday afternoon.