Game 17: Toyota 99, Crispa 97 (Dec. 6, 1975)

Toyota erased a 10-point third quarter deficit behind Byron “Snake” Jones and Robert Jaworski to win the opening game of the 1975 PBA All-Philippine Championship finals. Crispa star Bogs Adornado was held to just six points after colliding with Jaworski in the second quarter.

Toyota quintet rallies to beat Crispa, 99-97

By Ding Marcelo
Bulletin Today
Published Sunday December 7, 1975

A rock-steady Toyota five outgunned Crispa in a pulse-pounding final quarter last night, 99-97, to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five series for the All-Philippine championship of the Philippine Basketball Association at the Araneta Coliseum.

Byron “Snake” Jones exemplified the Comets’ grace under pressure by unerringly sinking four straight charities in the last 55 seconds to gve Toyota a 99-95 lead which the Redmanizers heroically tried but failed to overcome.

Rodolfo Soriano twisted and groaned to make it 99-97, but the Comets merely ran out the remaining 25 seconds to register their 11th win over Crispa in 17 games.


It was a classic come-from-behind victory for the Comets who had trailed by as much as 10 points thrice in the third quarter, the last at 78-68 and by nine points, 84-75, with eight minutes left in the game.

The Comets took the lead, 87-86, behind a 12-2 barrage engineered by Robert Jaworski and Jones, and though the Redmanizers went on top for the last time at 91-89, another 10-2 cluster finally extinguished whatever hopes Crispa had of upending the favored Comets, 97-93.

Royal Tru-Orange also took a 1-0 lead in its own best-of-five series with U-Tex by scoring a 125-113 win in the opening game of the series before a crowd of some 15,000.

The second doubleheader among the country’s top professional ballclubs will be held tomorrow with Weavers and Orangemen clashing in the first game at 6 p.m. and the Redmanizers and Comets meeting at 7:45 p.m.

The third game will be on Wednesday while a fourth encounter, if necessary, is scheduled Friday. The fifth match is set Sunday.

A bone-crunching smashup between Crispa ace gunner William Adornado and Jaworski late in the second quarter practically immobilized the Crispa star who finished with a merely six points, his lowest in the series and the incident was a major factor in the Redmanizers downfall.

Though Adornado came back in the third quarter to score two points, Crispa coach Baby Dalupan immediately pulled him out after it appeared that he could not take the searing pace of the match because of the severe pounding his left thigh absorbed in that encounter with Jaworski.

Dalupan could only chuckle as he missed the services of Adornado. “The outcome could have been different,” he said and recalled that there was no efficient gunner on the court during that momentous last three minutes.

The individual scores: (Crispa incomplete)

Toyota - 99
Arnaiz 22
Jones 22
Jaworski 20
Cherry 14
Segura 8
Fernandez 6
Rocha 4
A. Reynoso 2
C. Reynoso 1
Bauzon 0

Crispa - 97
Soriano 23
Cezar 20
Co 17
Burks 8
Fabiosa 7
Adornado 6
Crotty 5
Franco 1
De la Cruz 0
Pages 0

Toyota  18  28  23  30  -  99
Crispa  21  31  26  19  -  97
Refs: E. Cruz, I. Cahanding