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MPBL: Davao Occidental outlasts Basilan to force South finals decider

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ABS-CBN News

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&#x27; 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 <a href="https://sports.abs-cbn.com/" target="_blank">ABS-CBN Sports website</a>.)

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

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