World of Fun opened its title campaign with a narrow victory over Johann Kendrick Tan A, 82-80, in Class A action of the 9th Tan Kek Pin Memorial Basketball Tournament Wednesday night at Tay Tung High School Po Hang gym.

WOF led the first quarter, 24-17, as Joel Deocadiz and Andy Angodung combined for 16 points, while JKT-A relied on Matt Deles, who scored seven points, to prevent the defending champs from getting far ahead.

But Atoy Salazar, GE Quizan, and Deno Soriano gave JKT-A a big headache in the second quarter as they converted their shots to give WOF a double digit lead at 50-38.

In the third quarter, WOF had its biggest lead in the game at 22 points and limited JKT-A to two points in the first seven minutes of the game.

Regaining their composure in time, Tommy Andren hit two three-point shots and Paul Bacillote's converted two layups to add more points to JKT-A’s corner but WOF remained in control of the game as Peewee Demonteverde hit a buzzer-beating trey at the end of the quarter.

In the final chapter, Toto Cagayao caught fire for JKT-A as he made three straight baskets to cut the lead 72-62, but Soriano immediately responded with six straight points to keep the game under control at 78-64 lead with 4:18 left.

With JKT-A given up for dead, Andren suddenly got hot hitting two three-point shots as the lead narrowed to 10 points at 80-70 with 2:25 remaining.

JKT-A with momentum on their side, went on an 8-0 run courtesy of the free throws of Paul Ballicetti and five straight points by Andren with 1:09 left to draw closer at 78-80.

A 12-foot jumper from Demonteverde, however, with 25.5 seconds gave WOF some breathing room even as Deles scored on a follow-up with seven ticks remaining in the ballgame.

In the ensuing play, JKT-A got the ball back with 2 second left but failed to convert as the time expired.

In the 2nd game Chiz Whiz (formerly RG last year's runner up) came up victors over Team Davies 103-98, in Bracket C.*with reports from Stephen Tan

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