Crispa nearly lost a 20-point lead in the latter stages of the second half before clinching the 1974 MICAA All-Filipino championship over Toyota. The match turned out to be the last for both teams in the MICAA, as they joined seven others to form the PBA.
Crispa beats Toyota, 103-99, regains title
By Danny Santillan
Bulletin Today
Published Wednesday October 16, 1974
Crispa closed the game on what looked like an unstoppable rampage by defending champion Toyota in the last 42 seconds to win, 103-99, and regain the All-Filipino basketball crown - their third - before a crowd of 14,000 last night at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Redmanizers, who smashed the Comets by 24 points, 113-89, in the opener of their best-of-three series last Sunday, saw their five 20-point leads cut to only four and had to fall back on Reynaldo Franco and Alfredo Hubalde to preserve the victory.
After Ramon Fernandez put in the last two points of a 26-12 blitz that brought the Comets to within striking distance, 97-101, with 42 seconds left, Franco rode at the helm of Crispa’s stalling maneuver from there and then set Hubalde up for a jumpshot with only 16 seconds remaining to seal Crispa’s 21st win in the tourney and its fourth straight in the playoffs.
Robert Jaworski, one of only seven players used by Comet coach Dante Silverio, struck next but time ran out on the Comets no sooner than the dribbling Franco had reached Crispa’s side of the court.
But the way his boys hacked out their third triumph over the defending champions in this league to capture their third title this year, displeased Crispa coach Baby Dalupan.
“I didn’t want the way they played tonight. Although I was sure that time would run out on Toyota’s rally, I wanted them to play like a real champion team. I wanted them to win by a big margin as they did last Sunday in the first game,” said Dalupan as photographers urged him to join the customary pictorial accorded a champion team.
“Their offense was really that good,” said Silverio, whose full-court instruction to his boys in the last 10 minutes nearly forced the Redmanizers to crack up.
Philip Cezar epitomized that defense as the Asian Games veteran, who almost didn’t make it to Tehran, evenly scattered all of his 24 points, four of them brilliant follow-ups in a consistent stand that earned him a lot of applause from the crowd each time he was pulled out by Dalupan.
William Adornado, held to only two charities in the height of that Toyota blitz, finished with 28 points, while Fortunato Co banged in 21.
But Johnny Revilla, Rodolfo Soriano and Alberto Guidaben had a tougher time against Toyota’s defenses - from man zone to a full-court press in the last quarter. Revilla and Soriano managed only four points each, while Guidaben, overshadowed by Cezar all night, could only come up with two.
All of the seven men used by Silverio scored, with six of them, led by Rodolfo Segura who shot 26, getting away with at least 12 points.
When asked about it, Silverio said the boys he were already fielding, among them Cristino Reynoso, were playing well.
The title was the third for the Redmanizers in this tournament and their fourth MICAA crown counting their victory in 1971 in what now is the MICAA Open. It was also their third this year, having also won the Palarong Pilipino and then the prestigious national invitational earlier.
With Adornado, Co and Soriano firing 14 points amomg them, Crispa shook Toyota off its tails in the last five minutes and took the half by 16 at 58-42.
Then five times they forged ahead by 20, their biggest for the night, before the Comets switched from zone to ful court press to power that 26-12 rally.
The individual scores:
Crispa-Floro 103
Adornado 28
Cezar 24
Co 21
Franco 12
Carvajal 4
Revilla 4
Soriano 4
Guidaben 2
Hubalde 2
Toyota 99
Segura 26
Jaworski 19
Fernandez 13
C. Reynoso 13
Rodriguez 12
Rocha 12
Camus 4
Halftime: 58-42
Refs: F. Santarina, R. Bartolome
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