WHAT was supposed to be a duel between the best and the worst didn’t turn out to be one-sided. Far from it.

And it took Ronjay Buenafe’s heroics down the stretch before Coca-Cola could overcome tough Welcoat 98-96 last night to gain solo leadership in the Smart PBA Fiesta Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

Showing poise belying his rookie status, Buenafe drained a cold-blooded triple with 15.4 seconds left and then forced a critical turnover as the Tigers completed their rally from an 18-point deficit while denying the Dragons a breakthrough win in the tournament.

Buenafe’s basket gave the Tigers a 95-94 lead, their first taste of the upper-hand since the first quarter, before tapping the ball away from  Jay-R Reyes in the Dragons’ potential lead-reclaiming play.

Import Jason Dixon recovered the loose ball and was fouled and made both free throws for a 97-94 margin with 6.4 seconds remaining.

Marquis Gainous, Welcoat’s new import, then chose to drive to the basket instead of making an attempt from the three-point area and scored on a driving lay-up to push Welcoat to within 96-97 with 1.9 seconds to go.

But Buenafe himself sealed the outcome as he was fouled, splitting his free throws in the last 1.2 seconds.

"We just got lucky there in the end," said Coca-Cola coach Binky Favis.

The Tigers didn’t lose hope when the Dragons, their triples sinking and perhaps inspired by a new import, led by as large as 50-32 after a triple by Corey Santee late in the second period. 

Unstoppable inside, Dixon scored a personal conference-high 36 points on 16-of-26 shooting and had 10 rebounds, while Cesar Catli all had his 18 points in the second half, all coming from the three-point area.