Crispa leaned on Atoy Co and Cyrus Mann to prevent Toyota from sweeping the 1976 PBA All-Philippine Championship finals while keeping its slim grand slam hopes alive with a Game 3 victory.
Crispa clips Toyota, stays alive
Score: 115-105; U-Tex nips N'take
By Ding Marcelo
Bulletin Today
Published Friday, December 17, 1976
Crispa derailed the Toyota juggernaut
last night as the Redmanizers pounded out a convincing 115-105
victory over the Tamaraws to extend their best-of-five series for the
All-Philippine championship to a fourth game Sunday at the Araneta
Coliseum.
Their pride pricked by two consecutive
losses, the Redmanizers played with the vigor and vitality of a true
champion as they outclassed the bewildered Tamaraws who found
themselves crippled by fouls and almost demoralized by their own
offensive weakness.
Byron “Snake” Jones fouled out with
more than six minutes left while Howard Smith, the other half of the
mighty American tandem of Toyota, found himself saddled with five
fouls with still nine minutes left.
Fortunato Co, Jr., averaging more than
30 points in the last two playoffs, sizzled with 34 as he combined
with the inspired Cyrus Mann who hauled rebounds with impunity,
blocked shots with regularity and was so agitated by his own
performance, that he even ventured to suggest that his team would win
against odds of “10-to-1.”
A 5-0 blast in the last 60 seconds,
four of them by Alfredo Hubalde, finally scaled Toyota's fate as
Crispa roared ahead beyond recall, 115-103, after the Tamaraws
briefly threatened with five minutes left that saw Ramon Fernandez,
Francis Arnaiz and Robert Jaworski before he eventually fouled out
combine for 20 pointa against Crispa's 12 to narrow the gap to five,
100-95.
But demoralization was evident as Jones
fouled out during the stretch while Rodolfo Segura and Smith nursed
five fouls each.
Toyota remains one game ahead and they
still could wrap up the crown outright with a victory on Sunday. But
the loss denied the Tamaraws of an unprecedented three-game sweep of
the series.
Should Crispa win again, the fifth and
deciding game will be held Tuesday.
U-Tex took a commanding 2-1 lead over
Noritake as the Wranglers downed the Porcelain-makers, 116-113, in
their own series for third place.
The Wranglers, who led by 21, 61-40,
lost it in the fourth period but recovered on time with the
injury-prone Rudolf Kutch banging in the clincher with only 10
seconds left that gave his team an irreversible 116-113 lead.
“They had us all figured out,”
remarked Arnaiz, chief engineer of Toyota's last two victories over
Crispa. “You know, when you play a team like Crispa and then beat
them twice, these guys will do everything to correct their errors and
at the same time study our moves,” he explained.
Asked whether it was time that Toyota
also change its tactics on Sunday, Arnaiz said: “It's up to the
coach.”
Coach Dante Silverion was mum about the
loss, merely saying “No comment” though he appeared unhappy about
his boys' fold-up.
“It was the teamwork and the defense
that worked for us,” said Coach Baby Dalupan of Crispa. “Everyone
was moving, they were helping each other, and they really played hard
to win.”
The stands roared as Toyota erected an
early 30-23 advantage in the first quarter. But the crowd cheered
louder, however, when Crispa surged ahead with a 12-2 cluster at the
start of the second period that moved them ahead for the second
time, 40-36, never to relinquish the lead again.
Philip Cezar's fine work on Fernandez
and Tito Varela's seeming control of Jaworski and Bernard Fabiosa's
apparent success in harassing Arnaiz were among the key factors in
Crispa's victory.
Though Arnaiz fired 22 points,
Fernandez was limited to 11 while Jaworski finished with only seven
points.
Crispa – 115
Co 34
Mann 22
Hubalde 17
Soriano 10
P. Cezar 7
Fabiosa 7
Guidaben 6
Dionisio 5
Bunton 4
Varela 3
Toyota – 105
Arnaiz 22
Segura 18
Jones 14
Smith 14
Fernandez 11
Bauzon 11
Jaworski 7
Clarino 6
Acuna 2
Cortez 0
Fouled out: Jones, Jaworski
Crispa 28 34 22 31 – 115
Toyota 34 17 24 30 – 105
Refs: E. Cruz, J. Obias
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