It took a solid defensive effort from Davies Paint-Probac late in the game to dethrone BBC in the 7th Tan Kek Pin Cup Memorial Basketball Tournament.

Deeply motivated by a string of losses against BBC, Probac finally prevailed, 93-92, Wednesday night and clinched a place in the best-of-three finals, where it will meet pre-tournament pick Valiant Bank.

Kirk Tupas reserved his best for last, translating two steals into to two breakaway lay-ups to key Davies' victory at the Po Hang Gym of Bacolod Tay Tung High School.

Valiant Bank, earlier, needed a searing third quarter run orchestrated by the troika of Mark Descutido, Bobby Cepeda and Warren Alintano to put away Province, which won against Probac in the first stage of the semis only to lose its last two matches. Davies and Valiant start their best-of-three finals series at 8:15 p.m. tonight, after BBC and Province of Negros Occidental clash for the third place trophy.

The Immuvit Mythical Five will be named shortly after the third place battle.

Joebert Pastias had given BBC a 92-89 cushion with a triple with 1:28 left. And after Probac failed to score in the next possession, Tupas stole the ball from the blind side of Bobot Divinagracia and went all the way for a twinner with less than a minute to go.

On the next play, Davies coached by former Slasher Ryan Gamboa, pounced on BBC's poorly-executed inbound play and Tupas scored off the fast-break with 37 second left that proved to be the game-winning basket.

Despite the absence of the suspended Robert Bunol, BBC led by as many as 15 points at one point in the second quarter but Ryan Javellana, Mark Sabusap and Carlo Diaz joined hands in trimming the gap to 69-71 at the end of the third period.

Ryan Concha's rare four-point play gave Davies its first taste of the lead since the first quarter, 76-74, midway in the final period. After BBC hit four free throws, Concha nailed another triple to swing the advantage back to Davies, 79-78, before Peewee Demonteverde and Pastias traded baskets, paving the way for an 89-all count.

Probac's balanced scoring was paced by Javellana with 13 points, while Demonteverde and Sabusap posted 12 and 10, respectively. Concha, Paolo Li and Ariston Sillana added 9 apiece.

Divinagracia totaled 17 points, while Pastias scored 16 and Ronald Arabia chipped in 13.

Valiant overturned a 50-55 deficit at halftime as Cepeda scored all of his 9 points in the third quarter to help shove his team on top, 74-64. Province, despite Rex Bayer's 13-point fourth quarter output, never recovered as Alintano and Salazar nailed two triples each to finally ice the game Salazar scattered 18 points, including 10 in the third quarter, while Alintano and Carlo Dela Torre added 16 and 14, respectively. Rex Bayer finished with a game-high 24 points and teammate Frederick Premaylon contributed 16. *CPT

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