Toyota earned a finals berth at Crispa Walk Tall’s expense for the second straight conference and arrange a best-of-three duel with guest team Nicholas Stoodley for the 1980 PBA Invitational title.
Toyota, Stoodley win to gain finals
Bulletin Today
Published Friday Sept. 5, 1980
Toyota came through with just the needed winning margin last night in pulling off a 116-109 win over Crispa to arrange a best-of-three series with Nicholas Stoodley for the PBA Invitational championship at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Fashionmakers, scoring practically at will in the fourth quarter that saw them lead by as many as 24, routed Adidas, 103-87, in the first game.
Toyota and Nicholas Stoodley start their championship series at 7:30 p.m. today with the second match set tomorrow at the same time.
If a rubber match is necessary, it will be played on Sunday.
It was a surprising end to a closely fought elimination round with Toyota and Nicholas Stoodley, each a full game behind Adidas and Crispa going into last night’s matches, entering the finals by the back door.
Actually, the four teams closed out the two-phase elimination with identical 5-3 records but by the quirks of the Asian quotient system, Toyota and Nicholas Stoodley made it to the finals.
Backed up by their win over Adidas, the Fashionmakers came out on top of the four-way logjam with a plus 39 quotient. The Tamaraws barely made it with plus 16, only a point higher than the Shoemakers, who finished with plus 15. Crispa had plus 11.
Had Toyota won by less than seven points but more than two, Adidas would have qualified. Had Toyota won by two points or less, Crispa would have been the second finalist.
“The boys really played as a team. Teamwork was the secret of our victory,” said Toyota coach Fortunato Acuna, who added that his boys are psychologically ready for the title series.
“We had passed through two hard games. Beating Crispa was hard enough but the added pressure of winning by at least seven points was terrible,” Acuna added.
The gutsy offense that carried the Jeansmakers to three 10-point leads in the first half suddenly deserted them in the final quarter.
With import Byron “Snake” Jones playing below par in the fourth quarter, Crispa saw a 91-86 lead melt as they managed to score only two points in a five-minute stretch that saw the Tamaraws erupt for 12 points that gave them a 98-93 lead.
Although Andrew Fields hobbled with five fouls, the Jeansmakers were never able to seize the advantage and instead ran into a maze of errors.
Two fumbles by Alfredo Hubalde and one by Silvester Cuyler just when Crispa was trying to get a rally going killed Crispa’s hopes.
The individual scores:
Toyota — 116
Jaworski 26
Fields 24
B. King 22
Florencio 18
Fernandez 15
Arnaiz 7
Bulaong 4
Herrera 0
A. King 0
Tuadles 0
Crispa — 109
Cuyler 30
Co 19
Jones 18
Cezar 13
Guidaben 9
Dionisio 6
Hubalde 4
Fabiosa 2
Varela 2
Quarterscores: 27-30, 60-61, 84-83, 116-109
Toyota 27 33 24 32 — 116
Crispa 30 31. 22 26 — 109
Refs: T. de los Reyes, G. Ledesma, W. Mateo
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