CEBU, Philippines - The Unique Trade Center of team owner Ronel Tiu stunned the heavily favored Heartvit by the slimmest of margins, 84-83, in the 1st Punta Princesa Basketball Club (PPBC) 2009 Mike Rama Cup at the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Gym in Brgy. Punta Princesa, this city.
Heartvit was ahead by six points at the final 2:30 mark of the contest, 79-73, but Unique Trade staged a daring turnaround to enjoy its first taste of lead, 82-81, on a basket by Louie Navarro with a minute left to play.
Fritz Sullano was also a major player in that tide-turning rally.
In the ensuing sequence, Reynold Zamora calmly sank two free throws as Heartvit seized back the lead, 83-82, with 15 ticks left in the gameclock but Rolly Catubig played the hero's role as he hit a buzzer-beating twinner to lift Unique Trade Center in seventh heaven. Catubig topscored for Unique Trade with 23 points, while Navarro added 20 markers.
Rey Jumamel hauled 27 points for Heartvit.
Earlier, the ART cagers of Rey Arellano scored a lopsided 121-94 win over the listless Wilkris, 121-94, to snap out of their two-game slump.
Rommel Hapin and Junel Villahermosa paced ART with 29 and 25 points, respectively.
The scores
First game
ART (121) - Hapin 29, Villahermosa 2, K. Arellano 19, R. Arias 13, Sumalinog 10, N. Arias 10, Libre 6, Soco 4, A. Arellano 3, Navarro 2
Wilkris (94) - Magan 37, Monreal 12, Caballero 12, Sta. Iglesia 9, Gaviola 7, Cañedo 6, M. Arias 5, Tero 4, Maneja 2
Second game
Unique Trade (84) - Catubig 23, Navarro 20, vLibre 8, Ciabo 7, Ibona 7, Faunillan 6, Sullano 6, Tiu 4, B. Navarro 2, Pogoy 1
Heartvit (83) - Jumamel 27, Tagalog 13, Sanchez 10, Zamora 10, Babtid 8, F. Lim 7, Reyes 6, Pasana 2. – GGM (THE FREEMAN)