LA Tenorio picked the absolute perfect time to snap out of his scoring slump and gave Barangay Ginebra the lift it badly needs.

The 5-foot-9 point guard scored 22 points, eight of them in the fourth quarter, as the Gin Kings arrested a three-game slide on Tuesday with a 101-92 victory over Alaska to stay in the running for a twice-to-beat privilege in the first phase of the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

Tenorio, who was averaging just 6.4 points a contest coming into the crucial game, hit five straight points that quelled the last of Alaska’s comebacks, securing an 86-76 lead for the Gin Kings going into the final 6:05.

Ginebra rose to 6-4 with the victory and would need to win its last game, against Rain or Shine on Sunday, to assure that it will march into the quarterfinals belonging to the upper half of the bracket.

Alaska, on the other hand, lost for the first time in its last three games and is now at 8-2, also dropping out of the lead for the first time this conference.

The Aces also have the Elasto Painters are their last foes, with that match to happen on Friday. That game will be a KO match for the second automatic semifinal slot.

A victory by the Aces could even give them No. 1 ranking in the event that San Miguel Beer splits its last two games because Alaska had beaten the Beermen in their only elimination round clash and will win the tiebreaker.

The Beermen are now alone in the lead with an 8-1 record and will clash with Talk 'N Text before winding up against winless Blackwater on Dec. 9, the final day of the elimination round.

Ginebra is not also out of the woods yet, as the Kings can drop into a tie with Globalport and Meralco and could go down to the lower half of the draw in that scenario after having lost to the Batang Pier by 21 points and to the Bolts by 10.

Qualifying in the lower half is a virtual death knell as it would require beating a higher-ranked team two straight times to advance to the second phase of the quarterfinals.

“Not to copy what Byron Scott said (on Monday), but after a certain point, you just get tired of losing,” Ginebra coach Jeffrey Cariaso said. “I think the guys were really determined (to win) tonight.”

Joseph Yeo was also big in the fourth, shooting seven of his 12 with Mac Baracael finishing with 19 points and Japeth Aguilar 18.

And while the Gin Kings got five players tossing in twin digits, the Aces struggled as a team with Calvin Abueva, who had 24 and 14 rebounds, and JV Casio, who tossed in 18, the only ones finishing in double digits.

“A lot of people have been really hard on him (Tenorio), that’s because of his status — being the national team starting guard,” Cariaso said. “He has been expected to put up big numbers.”

Tenorio had played so bad in the first nine games of the Kings that he became the subject of trade rumors the past week. Cariaso said that he is aware of that, but never talked to LA about it.

“But even with us being 5-4 (before the game) and losing three in a row, LA was playing his position,” Cariaos said. “He’s giving guys shots. I wasn’t too worried about him not taking too many shots. The problem was his teammates were missing.

“He knew his teammates were struggling and he took over (tonight). I know he’s being hit a lot (by the fans),” Cariaso said.

Meanwhile, Barako Bull pulled out a 92-87 victory over NLEX earlier as the Energy rose up slightly in the standings.

RR Garcia had a career-high 22 points and two beautiful defensive plays that helped scuttle the Road Warriors.

Barako Bull is now at 4-6, while the Road Warriors dropped to 3-7 which kept KIA Motors mathematically in the hunt.

The Sorento, who have lost eight in a row, will battle Meralco on Wednesday at 4:15 p.m., needing no less than a win to stay alive before clashing with NLEX later this week.

A loss by KIA will give NLEX the No. 10 spot even as Purefoods and Talk ‘N Text clash in the 7 p.m. contest in a game that carries a lot of bearing for both.

Purefoods needs to win to stay in the upper half, the same with the Tropang Texters.