TONY Bishop outplayed Justin Brownlee and Meralco Bolts brought down Barangay Ginebra, 83–74, in Game 3 of their PBA Governors’ Cup title showdown at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Bishop finished with game-highs of 30 points and 10 rebounds,while helping hold Brownlee to a conference-low 19 points to power the Bolts to a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series.

Bishop also had two steals, one assist and one block against two turnovers as the Bolts moved two wins away from winning the import-flavored conference.

“It’s all effort, all heart. We’ re down early but we stayed together, played defense and battled hard, That’s what we did,” said Bishop in an interview posted at the official PBA website.

“We showed what we can do together,” he added.

Chris Newsome also shone for Meralco with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists, while Allein Maliksi bounced back from a scoreless outing with 10 points, seven of them in the fourth quarter.

Brownlee, who averaged over 30 points in the first two games of the series, was limited to 19 points on 8-of-21 shooting.

The former PBA Best Import awardee, however, added 15 rebounds, seven assists and six blocks in a losing effort.

But with Ginebra unable to score in the last 5:21 of the game, the Tim Cone- mentored Gin Kings finished with their lowest scoring output in the playoffs.

Actually, Meralco led by only two points, 73-71, when Bishop took matters into his own hands and silenced the pre- dominantly Ginebra crowd.

Bishop threw down a one-handed slam off a Cliff Hodge assist and followed it up with a jump shot for an 81-74 lead with three minutes remaining.

Hodge did his part on the defensive end.

Hodge blocked Christian Standhardinger with under four minutes left and then drew an offensive foul on the Ginebra star in the ensuing possession.

Standhardinger had 17 points and six rebounds, while Scottie Thompson added a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.

LA Tenorio also contributed 11 markers.

Game 4 is scheduled at 6 p.m. on Holy Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum

The scores

Meralco (83) — Bishop 30, Newsome 20, Maliksi 10, Black 8, Almazan 6, Quinto 3, Banchero 2, Hugnatan 2, Baclao 2, Hodge 0.
Ginebra (74) — Brownlee 19, Standhardinger 17, Tenorio 11, Thompson 11, Chan 9, Pinto 5, Devance 2, Tolentino 0, Mariano 0.
Quarterscores: 27-22, 40-48, 62-61, 83-74.

The results:

Game 1 — Meralco 104, Ginebra 91.
Game 2 — Ginebra 99, Meralco 93.
Game 3 — Meralco 83, Ginebra 74.
(Meralco leads series, 2-1)

Game Wednesday:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
6 p.m. — Meralco vs Ginebra