San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone was the first to say that it wasn’t pretty, and he more or less guaranteed that it would be more of the same the rest of the way.

Cone and his Mixers prevailed in a low-scoring contest over Meralco Sunday night, 83-73, after bottling up the Bolts’ main gun for a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five Final Four series in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

“It was a great defensive battle,” Cone said, looking none the worse for wear. “They’re a little bit undersized, but they’re so quick and they have good schemes. When we got down to executing, we were able to find some open lanes.” “It wasn’t exactly a pretty game, and this won’t be a pretty series,” added the multi-titled mentor who owns a Grand Slam with Alaska. “It (the rest of the playoffs) will be a series of attrition.” What stood out as pretty was the way the Mixers played defense in the second half – and how they held down Mario West to nearly harmless numbers – as they came back from 10 points down early in the third to win pulling away.

San Mig allowed just four Meralco points inside the final 4:42, breaking loose from a 70-69 game to take the all-important momentum and psychological edge going into Tuesday’s crucial Game 2.

West finished with just nine points – his career-low in the PBA – after making just three field goal attempts in 16 tries. And what made it quite ironic was he wasn’t the one who had a bum start in the game.

Marqus Blakeley was scoreless in the first period but hit 13 of his 15 in the final two quarters, including 10 in the third when the Mixers finally got something going and turned the tide.

“We just kind of hung around till we finally got something going at the end of the third quarter,” Cone said. “We got some momentum and carried it over to the fourth (quarter). We were emotionally drained from our last series.

“We lacked some energy, to tell you in all honesty.” Joe Devance was also big, shooting 10 of his 17 points in the fourth period, with James Yap, the former two-time MVP who has been in a scoring funk of late, finishing with 15 like Blakely.

Alex Mallari was the last man in twin digits for Cone with 12, and Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio later on admitted that they didn’t prepare for Mallari to have an explosive night from the outside.

Mallari, the rookie who was originally drafted by Petron Blaze, hit 3-of-4 triple tries like the 6-foot-7 Devance, in performances that totally put Meralco’s defensive game plan in disarray.

“It was expected that we would have a hard time scoring tonight,” Gregorio said. “But this is a series, and no one wins a best-of-five without winning three games.

“We were prepared for James (Yap) and PJ (Simon defensively),” continued Gregorio. “But the outside shots of (Joe) Devance and (Alex) Mallari broke up our defense.” Gregorio also wants his players to score more from the outside in Game 2, just to make life easier for West.

Cliff Hodge finished with 19 points to lead the Bolts, who also got 12 markers and seven rebounds from Mike Cortez and 10 points from John Wilson.

“The important thing right now is for us to make it a little breathable for Mario, he’s a little clogged and we need to help him out,” said Gregorio of the adjustments that he would need to make for Tuesday’s Game 2.

“It’s excusable for us to play that way in Game 1, because we’re not used to it,” he said, referring to the fact that the Bolts are in the first Final Four series of their young PBA existence. “But we have no more excuses in the second game.” Meanwhile, top-seeded Petron Blaze, on a roll and undefeated in more than six weeks, opens up its separate best-of-five series against defending champion Rain or Shine on Monday also at the Big Dome in Cubao.

Game time is 7:15 p.m. with the odds stacked heavily in favor of the Boosters, who have a nine-game winning streak going and who would be battling the Elasto Painters that will be without top point guard Paul Lee.

Lee has been declared out for the rest of the season with a left calf tear and that would leave the quarterbacking chores on Gabe Norwood and rookie Chris Tiu.

Elijah Millsap will lead the Boosters, who are in the semifinals for the first time this year, while Arizona Reid will try to take the Painters back to the title series.

Rain or Shine won this tournament in seven-game over San Mig last year with Jamelle Cornley as an import.