Crispa delivered the knockout blow on Toyota to win the 1980 PBA All-Filipino Conference crown after winning their best-of-five finals series, 3-1.
Crispa beats Toyota, bags All-Filipino title
By Bert Eljera
Bulletin Today
Published Sunday Dec. 14, 1980
Crispa cast off the frustration of not completing a 20-game sweep last night and played with vengeful fury to knock out Toyota, 105-91, and to capture its fourth Philippine Basketball Association All-Filipino championship before some 25,000 fans at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Redmanizers tried to blow the Tamaraws off the court with a 24-point lead and then fought off the spectre of defeat that struck them in the third game of the best-of-five title series to win pulling away.
Coming through with the same scorching rally that carried them to a 97-94 win in the third game, the Tamaraws crept to within five points two times and once to within four, 77-81, but the defending champions came out with a pair of baskets that beat the 25-second buzzer for the key points of the game.
Alfredo Hubalde flipped from the side that capped an 11-4 blast and gave Crispa a 92-81 lead and then Philip Cezar scored from beyond the 22-point line for a three-pointer as Crispa braced for the homestretch drive with a 10-point lead, 99-89, three minutes to go.
“At last we got it over with,” said Crispa coach Virgilio “Baby” Dalupanas he led a sober celebration in the Crispa dressing room after the game.
“The secret of us winning the championship was not the incentives promised by management. It was the good player-coach relation between Coach Dalupan and the boys,” was how team manager Danny Floro summed it up.
The key to the whole thing to be Toyota’s dire need for a coach. And Robert Jaworski, the center of the storm that led to the dismissal of Fortunato Acuna midway in the third game, said:
“We were at a great disadvantage. We really needed a competent coach out there.”
“We were at a great disadvantage. We really needed a competent coach out there.”
Jaworski dismissed speculation that he was taking over the job as coach of the team.
“No way. It’s impossible. I feel that I am still in good shape to continue playing for some time. I am not interested in being coach of the team,” the Toyota skipper said.
Jaworski, who was still slightly limping, said that his injury was not an ordinary sprain but was a torn ligament and how extensive the damage is still be known only when he undergoes a thorough medical check-up.
Dalupan admitted that Toyota’s need for a coach was felt badly for the Tamaraws right from the start.
“It is indeed very hard for a team to play without a coach. And I know Toyota felt that,” Dalupan said.
Toyota team manager Pablo Carlos, Jr., who called the shots for the Tamaraws said that Crispa really deserved to win the title.
“They played like the champions that they are,” said Carlos.
Coming out with a decisive 30-19 advantage in rebounds and a high 48 percentage on field goal attempts in the first half, the Redmanizers took control of the game early and surged to an 11-point lead, 27-16.
In no time, the Redmanizers, displaying them the same awesome firepower that carried them to a record 19 straight wins, including five over the Tamaraws, led by 15, 43-28, and then by 17, 51-34, late in the second quarter.
By halftime, everybody was ready to count the Tamaraws dead as they fell behind by 21 points, 41-62, before Alberto Guidaben connected on a three-pointer for that 24-point bubble, 65-41.
But the same scoreless spell that him them in the third game struck the Redmanizers anew as they managed to score only 10 points in 10 minutes while the Tamaraws banged in 22 that cut the gap to only eight points, 72-64.
Crispa managed to score only seven more points the rest of the third quarter and Toyota came roaring back to move within five points, 79-74, and then closer to four, 81-77, at the start of the fourth quarter.
But that was the closest Toyota got to Crispa as Hubalde came through with that crucial basket at the sound of the 25-second buzzer that gave Crispa an 11-point lead, 92-81.
And then Cezar put the icing on the cake with his three-pointer practically under the same situation as Hubalde’s basket.
“Those two shots killed us,” said Jaworski after the game.
Tanduay captured third place with a 111-109 win over Gilbey’s Gin in the fourth game of their own series for third place.
The individual scores:
Crispa — 105
Cezar 26
Guidaben 23
Co 23
Hubalde 17
Dionisio 6
Mamaril 4
Javier 4
Varela 2
Carpio 0
Fabiosa 0
Toyota — 91
Tuadles 29
Fernandez 19
Jaworski 9
Herrera 9
Florencio 8
Legaspi 5
Arnaiz 3
Merced 2
Salazar 0
Quarterscores: 31-22, 62-41, 79-74, 105-91
Crispa 31 31 17 26 — 105
Toyota 22 19 33 17 — 91
Refs: T. de los Reyes, F. Santarina, G. Ledesma
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