Game 10: Toyota 99, Crispa 94 (Oct. 28, 1975)

Toyota beat Crispa for the fifth consecutive time to close the eliminations of the 1975 PBA second conference. The second round meeting came before the start of the four-team semifinals.

Toyota subdues Crispa, 99-94; N'take qualifies

By Al Mendoza
Bulletin Today
Published Wednesday October 29, 1975

Toyota repeated over Crispa-Floro, 99-94, and Noritake grabbed the fourth and last slot in the semifinals of the Philippine Basketball Association second conference with a hard-earned 107-105 win over Universal Textiles last night in two epic battles held before a jampacked crowd at the Araneta Coliseum.

Although nothing was at stake except prestige, the Toyota-Crispa match was fraught with searing action as both teams put up all they had in the 48-minute battle.


The Comets, who had beaten the Redmanizers, 110-108, in the eliminations, built an 11-point lead, 67-56, early in the third quarter but Crispa exploded with a 10-0 barrage to come to within one at 66-67.

The match became fierce from there as both teams tightened up their defense. The count was knotted four times, the last at 91-all, before Toyota raced to a 95-91 lead, 1:47 left.

Crispa refused to give up, however, as it fought back to within one, 94-95, on three straight charities by William Adornado, who got handcuffed most of the way by Robert Jaworski. Adornado was limited to 13.

But Francis Arnaiz, ever the reliable back court man for Toyota, assisted Stan Cherry, 97-94, with 30 ticks left and Ramon Fernandz preserved the effort by blocking a driving attempt by Redmanizer Rey Franco in the return play to insure the Comets' victory.

James "Cowboy" Cornelious, playing his best game in the series, capped a 25-point effort with an undergoal stab, 106-105, that insured Noritake's victory with 44 seconds left.

The victory shoved Noritake into the four-team semifinals along with early qualifiers Toyota, Crispa and Royal Tru-Orange. Semifinals start tomorrow at the Araneta Coliseum.

U-Tex, a semifinalist in the first conference, played minus its coach Carlos Loyzaga, who resigned yesterday. Former national player Nap Flores handled the Weavers.

The individual scores:

Toyota - 99
Arnaiz 19
Jones 19
Fernandez 17
Jaworski 16
Segura 14
Cherry 12
Acuna 2
A. Reynoso 0
Rojas 0

Crispa - 94
Crotty 24
Soriano 17
Adornado 13
Cezar 12
Burks 9
Sta. Maria 6
Franco 5
Pages 4
De la Cruz 2
Guidaben 2

Toyota  22  32  23  22  -  99
Crispa  19  34  22  19  -  94
Fouled out: Toyota - Jones, Jaworski, Acuna; Crispa - none
Refs: R. Bartolome, E. Bernos