Game 19: Crispa 101, Toyota 93 (Dec. 10, 1975)

Crispa took control right from the onset to take Game 3 and move one win shy of capturing the 1975 PBA All-Philippine Championship. The underdog Redmanizers led by as many as 16 points, forcing Toyota to play catch up till the very end.

Crispa deflates Toyota, 101 to 93

By Antonio M. Siddayao
Philippines Daily Express
Published Thursday December 11, 1975

CRISPA’S Redmanizers, bristling again with the deadly form Toyota owner-coach Dante Silverio said he always feared they were capable of, run down the Comets, 101-93, last night and moved within one game of putting away the Philippine Basketball Association’s prize award in its inaugural season - the All-Philippine championship.

The Comets, who never led at ay time in the contest that drew a sellout crowd of 32,000 at the Araneta Coliseum, missed 17 free throws, flubbing 11 of 12 in the third quarter.

The Redmanizers seemed to ride on the momentum of last Monday’s sensational 111-107 all-Filipino triumph as they scored their second straight victory over the Comets and took a 2-1 lead with a fiery all-court game that unnerved the Comets from the first quarter on.

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A BLAZING rally engineered by Stan Cherry and Rodolfo Segura brought Toyota within striking distance, 91-85, from 12 down. But a 25-foot jumper by Bernard Fabiosa, typical of his clutch shots all evenin at the three-minute mark, appeared to take the march out of the Comets, and the Redmanizers wrapped up the battle with ridiculous ease.

So Crispa only has to beat Toyota tomorrow to complete its stunning comeback - a feat hardly imaginable after the humihilation of its successive losses to the Comets in the finals of the PBA’s first two conferences.

Should Toyota level the count, a climactic fifth encounter will be held on Sunday.

Danilo Florencio shot 36 points in a losing effort for Universal Textiles as Royal Tru-Orange roared to a 122-118 triumph and a 2-1 advantage in a similar best-of-five series for third place.

***

WILLIAM ADORNADO got 10 of his topscoring 24 in four minutes, in the process routing Robert Jaworski and giving Crispa a 28-14 lead, while Philip Cezar, Fabiosa and Fortunato Co combined for 45 points among themselves.

Typifying the Comets’ breakdown was Francis Arnaiz, who had a game-high 25 but lost his head at tmes and complicated an already bad situation for Toyota in the last quarter when he put a foot on a fallen Adornado and had to be relieved by Silverio.

“We got them. They were off. My boys were inspired. Their morale was very high,” said coach Baby Dalupan, who until last Monday had beaten Toyota only five times in 16 games.

***

“WE WERE outplayed,” conceded Silverio. “As I always said before, Crispa is really the team to beat. They are really strong when they play together. It was their teamwork that we had to contend with tonight. They worked very hard.”

Crispa’s intense defense forced 10 errors alone in the first quarter by the Comets, who threw away 12 points on these turnovers and paid dearly in a 26-14 deficit, the output being their poorest for a quarter this season.

“We’ll you can’t win them all,” added Silverio, answering a question, he said he did not think there was anything generally wrong with the Comets’ game. “Crispa just played extremely well,” Silverio said.

***

ALTHOUGH Toyota’s 6-foot-8 Snake Jones pulled down 19 rebounds, Crispa’s two Americans, Peter Crotty and Johnny Burks, neutralized that by combining for 17.

Crotty’s part in Crispa’s 24-14 blast-off was unusual hustling that brought three fouls on Jones in the first eight minutes, forcing his recall from that time on up to the start of the third quarter.

Time and again the embattled Comets rallied to within five or six points, only to be thrown back as often as the Redmanizers pulled themselves together and returned the attack.

When their tormentors scrambled for 38-33 behind an 11-5 spree starring Arnaiz, Big Boy Reynoso and Cherry in the quarter, the Redmanizers left them exasperated with a six-point explosion that included two hits by Burks, one of them a rousing passing play, 44-36, before a 50-40 halftime.

A couple of sizzling layups by Reynaldo Franco past Jones highlighted Crispa’s surge to its biggest lead of 16 points, 64-48.

Silverio had hoped the situation would change in this quarter with Jones’ return to play, but his boys lost their touch disasttrously at the foul line even when Dalupan taunted big rivals by pulling out his American center and opting for an all-Filipino five in the last four minutes.

Six consecutive free throw misses by the Comets in the last minute kept the score at 77-65 going into the fateful last quarter.

Fabiosa got away with a finger on Segura’s face in the final seconds of the half and the taunts the two exchanged after that overshadowed the ominous score at the interval.

The scores:

Crispa - 101
Adornado 24
Cezar 16
Fabiosa 15
Co 14
Crotty 10
Burks 10
Soriano 6
Franco 6
De la Cruz 0
Guidaben 0
Hubalde 0

Toyota - 93
Arnaiz 25
Jones 14
Cherry 13
Jaworski 12
Fernandez 11
Segura 10
Rojas 4
A. Reynoso 4
C. Reynoso 0
Bauzon 0

Quarters: 26-14, 50-40, 77-65, 101-93.
Referees: I. Cahanding, R. Bartolome