MICAA: Crispa 113, Toyota 89 (Oct. 13, 1974)

Crispa survived a turnover-prone second half to beat Toyota in the opening game of the best-of-three series for the 1974 MICAA All-Filipino title. The opener came after controversy rocked the league when the Comets were awarded the finals berth because of the U-Tex Wranglers’ decision not to show up in the replay of their semifinal match. U-Tex had earned the right to face Crispa for the title on a highly-disputed buzzer-beater by Danny Florencio, but MICAA officials later ordered a replay of the said contest.

Crispa crushes Toyota in first game, 113-89

By Danny Santillan
Bulletin Today
Published Monday October 14, 1974

Crispa ran up 18 errors in the second half last night and still came out with a ghastly 113-89 rout of defending champion Toyota in the first game of their best-of-three titular playoff for in the controversy-rocked All-Filipino MICAA basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.

A smooth 20-4 play in the first five minutes, which saw the Redmanizers put in 10 of their 13 attempts in that stretch, prefaced the rout of the Comets, who could only come to within 16 points of Crispa at best in the second half as the crowd of 12,000 watched both horrified and thrilled.

Toyota, which advanced to the finals after Universal Textiles defaulted the replay of their rubber match last Saturday, licked Crispa’s early 16-point bubble to only five late in the second quarter, but William Adornado, fresh from the bench, drilled in his four field tries in a 13-2 salvo that pushed the Redmanizers away by 16 again with nine minutes left of the first half.

Ninety-nine points alone of Crispa’s total output came from the efforts of five of its six Asian Games veterans in a convincing display of terrific shooting.

Adornado finished with 24 points, while Fortunato Co banged in 22. Rodolfo Soriano and Johnny Revilla, connecting mostly from the outside, each added 21, with Philip Cezar contributing 11.

Redmanizer coach Baby Dalupan alternately fielded centers Alberto Guidaben, Cezar and Edgardo Carvajal, with each one of them putting up a play that could only be better than or parallel to those showed by Toyota’s six-foot-four Ramon Fernandez and Alberto Reynoso.

Reynoso absorbed Toyota’s first rout in the slot from the 6-6 Guidaben as the Crispa center powered the Crispans to an 11-2 edge in the rebounds aside from adding four of his six points to the Redmanizers’ 20-point output in the first five minutes.

And with Soriano and the all-around Revilla firing in the style of Adornado and Co, Dalupan could not have asked more from his boys, who need only to repeat over Toyota tomorrow to regain the title they lost to the Mariwasa Hondas in the 1972 finals.

“Tuluy, tuluy na,” said Dalupan, who in previous campaigns could not be coaxed into making a forecast.

“The boys were raring to go before this game and they proved this tonight,” Dalupan added. “In fact, they were eager that they committed errors after errors in the second half. But look, those errors didn’t ruin their game.”

What really impressed Dalupan last night was the way his boys sustained their lead from start to finish, which he said was a far cry from their previous attitude.

“They didn’t let up a bit tonight and I see it as a good sign,” Dalupan said.

How did the U-Tex-Toyota controversy affect the Redmanizers?

“It did us good; we were completely rested – physically and mentally,” Dalupan answered.

The door is still open to the Weavers to play the Mariwasa Hondas in a separate best-of-three  playoff for third and fourth places, it was announced by a MICAA official last night.

“If U-Tex wants to play Mariwasa, they only have to inform the MICAA and we will gladly start it,” the same MICAA official announced.

Only the foursome of Rodolfo Segura, who shot 29, Robert Jaworski, Fernandez and Oscar Rocha carried the bulk of Toyota’s scoring lead in the absence of their equally reliable teammates, put out of commission by injuries.

The absence of Francis Arnaiz, Joaquin Rojas, Jr., Orlando Bauzon and Fortunato Acuna greatly told on the Comets as Crispa pounced on Toyota in all departments to bring off one of the league’s rare lopsided victories in championship games.

The individual scores:

Crispa – 113
Adornado 24
Co 22
Soriano 21
Revilla 21
Cezar 11
Guidaben 6
Hubalde 4
Franco 2
De la Cruz 2
Carvajal 0

Toyota – 89
Segura 29
Jaworski 18
Fernandez 17
Rocha 16
Rodriguez 4
Canson 3
A. Reynoso 2
J. Reynoso 0
Concepcion 0

Halftime: 60-43
Refs: J. Lansang, V. Marquez