The Gin Kings avoided falling into a huge 0-3 hole Sunday and instead got their act together by hacking out a 95-78 rout over the Beermen to slice their series deficit 1-2.

“It’s really a big win for us. We’ve realized what we need to do, and hopefully we can do the same tomorrow (Wednesday). It’s still a tough climb, but at least we’re still here to do the climbing,” said Ginebra coach Jong Uichico.

‘’It’s really hard to fall to 0-3, so importante talaga ‘yung game na iyon para sa amin. We got some confidence with the win and hopefully we can play with the same intensity the rest of the series for us to have a chance. Medyo mahirap silang talunin. The effort needs to continue.’’

The crowd favorites unexpectedly just steamrolled their favored foes from the get-go and never had any trouble in their first win against San Miguel this conference.

Uichico said his squad finally realized what they needed to do in order for them to keep in step with the Beermen and have a shot in heading to the finals.

‘’We realized what we have to do for us to stay in this series. At least we got one game and we have a shot here. Heto na ‘yung never-say-die namin.’’

For Mark Caguioa, who started for the first time this conference after he asked Uichico for a first five role, it’s the Kings’ precise execution that made the difference for them.

‘’We just wanted to do all the right things. We need to play the same way. Execute the plays and spread the floor well again for us to tie the series up. That’s the difference. We need to continue to run our offense right,’’ said Caguioa.

Caguioa, the first option off the bench the entire conference, came up big in his return as a starter by logging monster numbers of 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Gin Kings.

And perhaps due to the intensity and their determination to win, Caguiao and Rudy Hatfield even got into some heated exchange in the third period after they had different views regarding a certain strategy.

Jeric Lopez, Manila Standard Today