Mark Ramos sizzled in the fourth quarter and kept his poise when it mattered as Province of Negros Occidental edged Val Motors, 85-84, Wednesday night to clinch a semifinal berth in the 7th Tan Kek Pin Cup Memorial Basketball Tournament.

Province needed two free throw conversions from Ramos with less than a second left to fashion out the tight victory at the Po Hang Gym of Bacolod Tay Tung High School.

Ramos, the Immuvit Player of the Game, was hacked by Santiago Rapiz while following up the missed free throw of Bert Celis, who pulled Province within a point, after making the front end of his two charities.

Davies Paint-Probac, with Peewee Demonteverde and Ariston Sillana leading the way, also gained a ticket to the Final Four, following a 91-74 win over Lopue's Travel Center.

BBC and Valiant Bank were the first two teams to capture berths in the round-robin semifinals after winning playoff matches against Davies and Val Motors, respectively.

Davies waxed hot from the perimeter just in time with Demonteverde, Concha and Ryan Javellana nailing a triple each, before Sillana sustained the momentum with six straight points midway in the final period to put away Lopue's.

Sillana finished with 15 points, 8 of which came in the fourth quarter, with Demonteverde leading the supporting cast with 11 points, the same output as Paolo Li. Carlo Diaz also contributed 10, while Mark Sabusap and Tisoy Escote added 9 and 8 respectively.

Forced to play with only four players, after slotman Dominic Ciocon left the game because of a knee injury in the second quarter, Lopue's ended the first half staring at a 43-39 deficit, which was extended by Diaz in the third period.

Andy Angodung paced Lopue's with 18 points. Aaron Guevarra chipped and Mark Binguan chipped in 15 and 14, respectively.

First runner-up two years ago but eliminated in the quarterfinals last year, Province showed it still has enough firepower to eliminate Val, one of the teams tipped to go all the way in the 16-team tournament.

Behind Cesar Ordas and Sammy Belangel, Val climbed its way back into the game, after trailing most of the way, grabbing the lead for the first time at 76-74 with 3:56 left, before Ramos threw his weight around with two straight layups to regain the lead at 78-76.

But Belangel hit his fourth triple in the final quarter to swing the lead back to Val only for Ramos restore the two-point lead with a trey.

Godoy Cepriano made it 82-81 for Val but Ramos responded anew, before Rapiz scored on a follow up to preserve the 1-point lead with less than a minute left. Victory appeared to be in the bag for Val when Ordas stole the ball with 30 seconds left but Cepriano missed a hurried trey as the shotclock expired, forcing Rapiz to foul Celis, who, like Ryan Ladrido scored 13 points. *CPT

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