Putting premium on defense in the final minute, Probac brought Magnolia back to earth with a come-from-behind 87-81 victory Wednesday night, while BBC handily won over Krua Thai-Ice Monster in the 6th Tan Kek Pin Memorial Cup Basketball Tournament at the Po Hang Gym in Bacolod City.

With the victory, Probac, mentored by Troy Sarabia, improved to 4-1, while dealing pacesetting Magnolia its initial loss in six games. But Magnolia remained on top of the standings in Bracket B.

In the second game, Rico Cabatu spewed fire from the perimeter to spark BBC to a 94-80 rout over Krua Thai-Ice Monsters.

The diminutive Cabatu set the tone for the rout, nailing five triples in the first period as BBC raced to a 30-14 advantage, before teammates Buñol and Jobert Pastias kept their team's guns blazing until the final buzzer. Bobby Agsam, Yen Dolar and Wendell Fernandez wrapped up the Probac win, hitting two free throws each in the final minute.

Back-to-back triples by Agsam and Kirk Tupas pushed Probac ahead, 81-77, with 2:07 left but Jojo San Miguel responded with a three of his own to trim the gap, 81-80, with 1:35 left, before the Magnolia cagers were stifled by a tenacious Probac defense that held them to a single point until the end of the game.

Magnolia zoomed to a 34-21 lead in the second quarter but Probac went on a 15-3 tear behind point guard Eric Uy slice the lead, 36-37, at halftime. With the absence of top gunner Warren Alintano, Reinhard Chua was Magnolia's pillar of strength in the third period, scoring 13 points inside the paint to allow his team to spring back to life.

From there, however, Probac, which also missed the services of big man Cris Javelosa, dictated the pace and came away with the decisive victory.

Uy finished with 13 points with Fernandez and Bobby Agsam finishing with 11 and 10 respectively, while Chua paced Magnolia with 15. Airon Pillado added 11.

BBC built a 79-55 cushion at the end of the third period with Buñol and Pastias on the firing end. Onebol Talatala tried to claw Krua Thai back into the game with four successive triples in the final quarter but BBC held on to secure its third win in four games.

Krua Thai dropped to 4-2. *CPT

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