Toyota denied Crispa a chance to win the 1981 PBA Open Conference crown by sending their best-of-five series to a deciding fifth game.
Toyota rips Crispa, ties series
Bulletin Today
Published Friday July 24, 1981
Toyota, with its stars keeping away from foul trouble, rolled back Crispa, 116-98, last night to force a rubber match for the PBA Open championship at the Araneta Coliseum.
A blistering 13-1 Toyota windup engineered by Andrew Fields, Ramon Fernandez and Francis Arnaiz while Crispa lapsed into errors won the game for the Super Diesels after the Redmanizers had threatened to within six points, 103-97, four minutes left.
The victory, Toyota’s third in eight meetings with Crispa this season, squared their best-of-five championship series at two games apiece, making tomorrow’s showdown a winner-take-all affair.
San Miguel Beer struck down U-Tex, 128-125, in the first game to send their own playoffs for third place at 2-2. They meet in the rubber match also tomorrow.
“They played as a team and the desire to win was there,” said Toyota coach Eddie Ocampo.
The bespectacled Toyota mentor, who is gunning for his second title as a PBA coach, singled out Nicanor Bulaong as the Toyota’s man of the hour but he noted that the win was basically a team effort.
“It was one game which I did not tell them what to do and besides we did not commit too many errors this time,” Ocampo said.
The Redmanizers, favored to win their third PBA Open title and their ninth PBA crown, failed to get their game gone and their bid for the title appeared to be jeopardized with the possible absence of Alberto Guidaben in tomorrow’s rubber match.
The 6’5’’ Guidaben, who played the starring role in Crispa’s victories in Games 2 and 3, went out of the game early in the last quarter with an injured left ankle following a bad fall and sat out the rest of the game with his left foot submerged in an ice box.
Fields triggered Toyota’s blazing windup with his four-point cluster that put the Super Diesels on top, 107-97, 2:52 to go.
Another four-point binge by Fernandez after an error by Fortunato Co, Jr. and a miss by Alfredo Hubalde sealed the game for the Super Diesels, 111-97, two minutes remaining.
At this juncture, the crowd estimated at 24,000 started to head for the exits as Crispa further collapsed in a maze of errors.
“The pressure was too much for us,” said Crispa mentor Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan. “The boys also looked tired. We’ll just have a meeting tomorrow instead of the usual practice to prepare for the final game on Saturday.”
Fernandez, who fouled out in the two games, had only two personals last night and made 21 points, second only to Fields’ game-high 26.
Robert Jaworski, who missed Game 3 with an injured ankle, saw action for the Super Diesels and contributed 16 points, including a pair of three-point shots. He committed only four fouls.
The individual scores:
Toyota — 116
Fields 26
Fernandez 21
Florencio 20
Jaworski 16
Bulaong 10
Arnaiz 10
V. King 9
Tuadles 2
Legaspi 2
A. King 0
Herrera 0
Crispa — 98
Hubalde 18
Co 18
Cezar 16
Jones 15
Guidaben 11
Hardy 9
Fabiosa 7
Dionisio 2
Carpio 2
Carpio 2
Varela 0
D.L. Cruz 0
Quarterscores: 20-26, 56-52, 85-80, 116-98
Toyota 20 36 29 31 — 116
Crispa 26 26 28 18 — 98
Refs: J. Capers, L. Jones
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