Davao Occidental Tigers escaped with an 81-76 win, outlasting Basilan Steel Jumbo Plastic at Lamitan City Gymnasium on Wednesday to force a Game 3 in the South finals of the MPBL Lakan Cup.

The winner-take-all game is in Davao on Saturday.

Still recovering from a shock 74-72 defeat in Game 1, the Tigers had to grind it out in the final minutes to gut out the victory.

Emman Calo led the way for Davao with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists, while Richard Albo added 14 points.

Davao had to put in the extra effort in the middle quarters for a 64-55 advantage after trailing Basilan early in the match.

The Steel came charging back in the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run behind Allyn Bulanadi.

But the rally came too late, as Davao held on.

In the other game, Makati City Super Crunch frustrated reigning champion San Juan-Go for Gold to also send their best-of-3 series to a rubber match.

Makati got the better of San Juan in an emotionally charged and closed-door game 91-88.

Jeckster Apinan had 20 points on top of 12 rebounds, while helping Crunch inflict the Knights' first loss in the Lakan Cup.

But San Juan did not go down without a fight as Carlos Isit was able to bring the Knights to within 89-87 with 20 ticks to go.

However, Makati managed to hang on and hack out the win.

John Wilson paced the Knights with 21 points.

(For more sports coverage, visit the ABS-CBN Sports website.)