Displaying steely resolve, Alvin Reyes buried a triple with only a second left and lifted Philippine Christian University-Dasmariñas (PCU-D) to a nail-biting 78-76 win over top seed Olivarez College and into the threshold of its first-ever crown in the UCAL-PGFlex Linoleum Cup on Thursday at the Paco Arena in Manila.

Almost given up for dead after falling behind by five, 71-76, with a little over two minutes left, the Dolphins suddenly caught fire, coming through with a blazing 7-0 finish capped by a Reyes three-point shot to snatch the win in the opener of their best-of-three title series.

The Dolphins can raise the championship trophy — their first since joining the league in Season 2 — with another win on Monday. If necessary, Game 3 is set on 10 April.

The fold-up was a huge disappointment for the Sealions who raced to an early 9-0 lead on the way to building several twin-digits leads along the way only to lose to steam in the crunch — no thanks to PCU’s grit and resilience.

Reyes tallied 12 points to go with three rebounds and one assist in 25 minutes of action enough to make up for a measly nine-point show of top gunner Joshua Diño.

With Diño struggling offensively in the face of Olivarez’s pesky defense, John Carl Catayong and Ram Mesqueriola took the scoring cudgels, finishing with 21 and 14 points, respectively.

Overall, it was PCU-D’s offense that made the difference, posting an impressive 41 percent shooting from the field, making 32 of 78 tries, compared to 39 (29-74) for the Sealions, who erected a 14-point lead early in the second quarter.