LUCENA City, Quezon Province: Another endgame, and Alaska forced San Miguel Beer into another meltdown.

The Aces on Friday night lagged behind for most of the game and again turned to their defense in the waning minutes to ground out an 82-75 victory and move within another win of sweeping the depleted Beermen for the PBA Philippine Cup title at the Quezon Convention Center here.

Vic Manuel scored 11 points in the fourth period and RJ Jazul canned two huge jumpers from close range that turned Alaska’s fortunes and moved the Aces on the brink of snapping the longest active all-Filipino drought dating back to 2000.

Jazul hit a jumper from deep right corner off Arwind Santos and then a looper off the 6-foot-9 Yancy de Ocampo that had the Aces erasing a 75-74 deficit.

Those two Jazul baskets took the sting out of the Beermen, as they never got to buy a bucket after Alex Cabagnot hit a wide-open layup for that one-point lead with 1:43 to play, reprising somewhat what happened in Game 1 when Alaska closed out with nine unanswered points to win, 100-91.

Alaska now thus has four chances to win this thing starting with Game 4 on Sunday at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.

And coach Alex Compton will make sure that his wards come out as hard as they could because “it will be another dogfight out there. That team (San Miguel) will not hand us anything.”

“But that’s the thing I love most about my team, they (Aces) always work hard.”

Manuel finished with 17 points, and Calvin Abueva had 13, including a huge triple with 6:22 left which was part of a 15-8 tear that had Alaska taking a 72-68 lead.

Santos tied the game at 72 with a four-point play off a foul by Manuel with 4:46 left, only for the Beermen to go on their first dry spell that had them scoring just a single free throw courtesy of Chris Ross in more than three minutes.

It was another heart-rending loss for the Beermen, who lost Game 2 by just three points even if they have played the first three games of this series without reigning two-time MVP June Mar Fajardo.

Incidentally, Fajardo showed up and watched his teammates practice on Thursday morning and said that he could probably suit up for Game 4.

The 6-foot-10 San Miguel franchise player twisted his knee in a rebound play in Game 6 of the Rain or Shine Fnal Four series and has been out of commission since.

He will win a second straight Best Player of the Conference award before Game 4 on Sunday after averaging 26 points and 18 rebounds before the injury.

Sonny Thoss scored 12 points, had six rebounds and two blocks in his worthiest game for the Aces in the Finals, finally finding some space to operate inside with the continued absence of Fajardo.

Manuel, who looms as the best bet for the Finals MVP if Alaska does go on to win, also had seven rebounds and was the television panel’s Best Player of the Game for the third straight night.

No team in league history has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven series.

But Compton believes that if there is one team that can pull it off, it would be San Miguel.

“My respect for them hasn’t changed (even with a 3-0 lead),” Compton said. “We will go out there and work as hard as we could again and see where that takes us.

“I expect all-out war again (for Game 4), like two boxers coming at each other and trying to beat each other’s brains out.”

Jay-R Reyes, who has been playing third fiddle at center for the Beermen, finally got his chance to shine with extended minutes in lieu of Fajardo and De Ocampo not as effective.

He scored 10 points in the first half but committed the stupid mistake of landing an elbow on Manuel’s jaw with 9:32 left that caused his ejection.

San Miguel coach Leo Austria lost another big man in the process and that bit of rough play fired up Manuel as he scored all of those 11 fourth quarter points in the next four minutes after that.