MANILA: Denied of No. 1 ranking in the eliminations, Meralco could be thinking that it was a blessing in disguise.

The Bolts on Monday night clawed out of a nine-point hole in the fourth quarter to turn back hard-fighting NLEX, 104-97, and become the first team to make the Final Four of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

San Miguel Beer, which knocked out the Bolts for top-ranking after the tiebreak at the end of the elimination round, wasn’t as lucky, falling to sister squad Star, 108-99, to extend their side of the quarterfinals into a deciding game slated Wednesday night.

Meralco actually trailed by 15 points early with no offensive rhythm going, and trailed, 78-87 going into the final 5:50 before practically the entire crew stepped up to take the cudgels for import Arinze Onuako and make the semifinals of this conference for the second straight season.

Reynel Hugnatan came off the bench to finish with 20 points, 10 of them in the fourth period, with rookie Chris Newsome chipping in seven of his total in the same stretch and Onuako coming up with a dagger tip-in inside the final minute.

Onuako was forced to give up the ball more often than not whenever he got his touches inside the paint, as the double-teaming NLEX defense made life truly miserable for him.

And this, coach Norman Black believes, would be the key in determining whether his Bolts will survive the Final Four or go home packing like last season.

“We have to be able to solve a double team on Arinze (in the semifinals),” Black, a Grand Slam winner with San Miguel who is looking to win a first title for the Bolts, said. “NLEX played him very well (inside) tonight. That (solving a double team) will more or less tell us how far we can go.”

And the Bolts could be thanking the turn of events that took place at the end of the elimination round, when the Beermen defeated defending champion Tropang TNT on Friday night to win No. 1 and draw Star.

Because with the way the Hotshots played Monday night, there were very few teams in this tournament that could have beaten them.

San Miguel wasn’t one of them.

Star labored hard under a bum start, lagging behind by as many as 13 points early before finally getting something going in the fourth period to take the Beermen into a KO contest.

“I am just thankful for the God-given hearts my guys have,” Star coach Jason Webb said. “These guys just never give up. They never give in. I don’t have to make these guys believe, they know how good they are.”

Peter June Simon, import Ricardo Ratliffe and Allein Maliksi pounded the Beermen with baskets from inside and out and the Star defense shut down San Miguel’s vaunted offensive armada to author the upset.

A 14-0 run had the Hotshots turning an 87-89 deficit into the commanding 12-point lead heading into the final 2:41. Simon scored five points in that telling swing and finished with 22.

Ratlifee and Maliksi, meanwhile, scored seven straight points that helped preserve the lead as the Hotshots take a huge edge in the mental side of the series when the knockout game is played Wednesday at 7 p.m.

June Mar Fajardo scored 24 points and had 13 rebounds, with import Tyler Wilkerson finishing with 22 and 14.

The winner of the San Miguel-Star series advances to the Final Four opposite the survivor of the Rain or Shine-Barangay Ginebra quarterfinal pairing, which the Elasto Painters lead, 1-0.

Rain or Shine guns for a sweep of that best-of-three series on Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. before defending champion Tropang TNT also goes for the same against Alaska in the 7 p.m. contest at the Big Dome in Cubao.

Whoever wins the series between the Texters and the Aces will go on to face the Bolts. Both Final Four match-ups are best-of-five, with the championship series a best-of-seven.