The other half of last year’s protagonists in the Finals of the PBA Governors’ Cup seems to be headed back there.

San Mig Coffee moved within another win of a return shot at the season-ending championship Friday night after finally solving the Meralco defense in a 94-87 win that gave the Mixers a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five Final Four series at the Araneta Coliseum.

And what could make things easier for the Mixers is that Meralco import Mario West could be out for the remainder of the series after badly injuring his right shoulder after being fouled hard by Joe Devance in the third quarter.

Rookie Alex Mallari scored a career-high 23 points, 13 of them coming in the final period as he and Marqus Blakely anchored the San Mig offense at a time when the Bolts hung tough despite playing all-Filipino in the final 16 minutes.

“Everybody always thinks that it’s easy when the other team goes all-Filipino,” San Mig coach Tim Cone said afterwards. “But it just makes the game so much harder. The tension drips with the team with the import, because it is suddenly the favorite.” The Bolts certainly did not play like they were handicapped in the final 16 minutes, even taking a 71-68 lead with 8:30 left courtesy of a Jared Dillinger jumper.

Mallari actually scored seven of his fourth quarter points inside the final 2:41, including the dagger three-pointer that touched off the Mixers’ finishing kick, which made it 84-79.

The left-hander, tall for a point guard at 6-foot-2, then hit four of San Mig’s final six points from the stripe to seal the deal.

Should the Mixers make the Finals, it will be the 24th title series stint for the franchise, while Cone will be shooting to win his 15th title in a 26th trip to the Last Dance.

“This series has been a coming out party for Alex,” Cone said. “He also did a great job on Dillinger tonight. He is just an incredible defender. The offense we get from him is just a bonus. And we got a lot of that from him tonight.” Game 4 – the first of two chances that San Mig has of wrapping this series up – is set Sunday also at the Big Dome in Cubao, and a win would put them back to the Finals.

But the possibility of earning another crack at the squad that beat them to the title here last year is a little slim at the moment, with Rain or Shine, the defending champion, trailing powerhouse Petron Blaze, 0-2, in the other Final Four pairing.

The Boosters, who have not lost for more than two months now, will try to extend a franchise-best 11-game winning streak and formally dethrone the Elasto Painters, who won this championship in a classic seventh game triumph over San Mig last season.

Gregorio rued the loss of West but later on said that it was all part of the game.

What seemed to have dejected him more was the fact that the Bolts gave up a total of 35 fouls for a total of 41 free throw attempts. San Mig was called for just 19 fouls.

“We are still going to fight through on Sunday, do whatever it takes,” Gregorio said. “He (West) sprained it so bad and he told me that it has happened to him before. It was an obvious bump. But I know Joe Devance to not be a dirty player, but the damage has been done.” Mike Cortez paced the Bolts with 15 points, 10 of them coming in the final two periods, and five others actually finished with 10 or more.

“It’s really hard to win without an import. But it’s harder to win if for some reason you allow your opponent to go to the line 41 times,” Gregorio said in an obvious stab at officiating.

“We went to the line (just) 22 times and I thought that was the difference. We were called for 35 fouls and they were called for 19,” he continued. “How can we be called for 35 fouls, when in the eliminations, we were the least in giving up fouls?”