AIDED by superior tiebreak quotient, Blackwater pulled the rug from under two leg winners and soared to the No. 1 spot in Pool A into the quarterfinal round Saturday in the PBA 3×3 Season 2 First Conference Leg 5 at Robinsons Novaliches.

Actually, the Red Presidents found themselves in a triple tie with Leg 2 victor Cavitex and Leg 4 ruler San Miguel Beer at 1-1 after group play but they emerged tops by virtue of a superior tiebreak count of 40 points to advance into the next round.

The Braves took the second quarterfinal spot with 37 even as the Beermen, with 34, just kissed their back-to-back title bid goodbye.

Blackwater, which missed the KO stage last week, gained the much-needed lift in its 21-13 upset of SMB in the first game of the day.

Alfrancis Tamsi sizzled with 12 on a 5-of-7 shooting from deep while Prince Rivero added seven and Jeff Javillonar chipped in two as the Red President took down the Beermen.

They fell short of duplicating the ambush versus the Braves and dropped a 19-21 setback but their high outputs from the two contests proved enough to send them through.

The Beermen then defeated Cavitex, 21-16, but ultimately lost in the race for a Last-8 berth due to their inferior tiebreak card.

Leg 1 winner TNT, Leg 3 conqueror Meralco and guest team J&T Express swept their way to the quarterfinals in the other groups.

The Tropang Giga routed Barangay Ginebra, 21-11, and NorthPort, 21-12, to dominate Pool B while the Bolts brought out the broom in Pool C at the expense of Terrafirma, 16-12, and Pioneer Elastoseal, 21-14. J&T, the leg runner-up in Leg 2, wiped out Pool D versus Platinum Karaoke, 15-10, and Purefoods, 20-17.

The Gin Kings (Pool B), the Katibays (Pool C) and Platinum (Pool D) qualified for the quarterfinals as No. 2 in their respective brackets with their 1-1 records.