MANILA: All things come to an end in the PBA — whether bitter or sweet.

Meralco, with its defense unforgiving as ever, on Thursday night tripped Purefoods, 77-65, to dethrone the Star Hotshots as PBA Philippine Cup champs and give coach Norman Black his first series win over Tim Cone in more than a year.

The Bolts came up with two spurts that bridged the third and fourth quarters at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay, breaking free from a 44-all game with under five minutes left in the third period to oust the Hotshots.

It was Cone and Purefoods’ first loss in a total of 10 knockout matches dating back to their Grand Slam run last season.

The victory was also the first for the Meralco franchise in a playoff series against Purefoods, which beat Black and Talk ‘N Text in three series last year on the road to the then-San Mig Coffee Mixers’ Triple Crown sweep.

James Sena, a reserve center, hit all of his six third quarter points when the Bolts broke that 44-all tie, touching off the spurt with two jumpers before hitting another to close out the third period that had Meralco on top, 56-48.

Meralco then opened up the fourth with a 9-2 run and erected a 65-50 lead. The Bolts established their biggest lead, 71-54, after a pull-up jumper by John Wilson with 4:29 remaining which was basically all she wrote for Purefoods.

The Hotshots were shackled effectively by the Meralco defense that their 65 points were a conference low.

Jared Dillinger paced the Bolts with 14 points and six rebounds. Sena finished with 11 like point guard Mike Cortez. Cliff Hodge contributed 12 markers despite being saddled with fouls early.

Joe Devance led all Purefoods shooters with 21 points with Yap shooting 14.

Purefoods struggled big time from the free throw line, missing 14 of 30 attempts, with Yap going 1-for-7.

Meralco thus advanced to another do-or-die match, this time against No. 3 Alaska, which scored an 82-78 decision over NLEX in their first phase quarterfinal clash earlier in the night.

“I feel that the entire conference, we have improved a lot defensively as a team,” Black told reporters during the winning coach’s interview. “We struggled in the early part because of cohesiveness mainly, and me being the new coach.

“This is a huge win for the Meralco program,” Black continued. “This (beating Purefoods in a series) is something we have been trying to accomplish.”

The Aces hung tough in the face of the Road Warriors’ spirited finish as NLEX tried doggedly hard the entire night to take their series into a KO game.

JV Casio hit the win-sealing wide-open layup after leaving Mac Cardona behind in Alaska’s inbound play with 12.6 seconds remaining as the Aces moved within a win of a berth in the Final Four.

NLEX, the 10th seed, stuck at the coattails of the Aces in what Alaska coach Alex Compton described as a great defensive game.

And the Aces, who dropped into the quarterfinals after losing two close games to end their elimination round campaign, needed just that one defensive breakdown when Cardona was left flat-footed by Casio to pull out the win.

Black, who was coaching the more-talented Tropang Texters last season, was eliminated by Tim Cone in the quarterfinals here last year, in five games of the Commissioner’s Cup Finals and in the Final Four of the Governors’ Cup.

He won just a combined four games against Cone in three series for the year.

But Black refused to make it a personal duel with Cone and instead, said that he will just try to enjoy this win for the next 12 hours before focusing his sights on the Aces.

“I really don’t take it personal,” Black said. “He (Cone) had a better team last year. He won all those championships that he basically beat everybody (every coach).

“Nothing personal against Tim, but I have beaten him in the past also,” Black said.