Game 31: Crispa 123, Toyota 97 (Oct. 26, 1976)

Crispa avenged its first round defeat to Toyota with a lopsided victory to cap off the eliminations of the 1976 PBA Second Conference. Their match overshadowed a then-record 75 points by Harry Rogers for 7-Up hours earlier against Fiberlite.

Crispa clobbers Toyota, 123-97

7-Up's Rogers fires 75

By Ding Marcelo

Bulletin Today

Published Wednesday Oct. 27, 1976

Crispa tore Toyota's game to pieces last night, handing its bitter rival a 123-97 shellacking as the Denims gained a psychological edge going into tomorrow's start of the Philippine Basketball Association second conference semifinals at the Araneta Coliseum.

Some 23,000 spectators were on hand to witness the massacre as the Denims, smarting from the absence of ace gunner William Adornado, took control of the game from the second quarter on to avenge a 98-95 loss to the Comets in the first round.

An unanswered 13-point explosion by Crispa at the start of the second quarter set the tone of the evening's one-sided match as the Denims took a 10-point 40-30 lead from a 27-30 first quarter deficit.

Though the Comets narrowed the gap as quickly behind Robert Jaworski and Ramon Fernandez, 42-41, the Denims retaliated swiftly to pull away at the half, 53-45, from where they were never again threatened.

Game 21: Crispa 96, Toyota 91 (Dec. 14, 1975)

Crispa's title-clinching win over Toyota in the deciding fifth game of the 1975 PBA All-Philippine Championship was overshadowed by a pair of bench-clearing brawls. The Redmanizers' victory denied the Comets a rare grand slam.

Crispa wins, captures All-Philippine title

By Ding Marcelo
Bulletin Today
Published Monday December 15, 1975

Crispa-Floro vanquished arch-nemesis Toyota, 96-91, last night in a bruising, bloody encounter marked by two bench-emptying free-for-all sessions to win the All-Philippine Championship – the prized title of the infant Philippine Basketball Association.

Close to 40,000 spectators watched both excited and tormented as the two teams, overcome by passion and deep-seated emotion, chased each other with flailing fists across the court, once in the second quarter and again with only 35 seconds left in the game when Crispa was ahead, 96-91.

Oscar Rocha, a sophomore in the Toyota lineup, swung a right cross to Rodolfo Soriano’s faced early in the second quarter in precipitate the first riot that saw all benches emptied, the count at 27-18, in favor of the Redmanizers.

Philip Cezar somewhat blotted what otherwise was a splendid job when he punched Ramon Fernandez in retaliation for an elbow dug in this face when he drove off the Toyota ace for Crispa’s final basket of the evening. Again, all players of both teams swarmed into the court joined in by some fiercely partisan fans and it took another 10 minutes before complete order was restored.

Rodolfo Segura: He keeps his chin up (Oct. 31-Nov. 7, 1975)

Sports Weekly Magazine’s feature on Ompong Segura after his go-ahead basket gave Toyota a thrilling victory over Crispa in the 1975 PBA Second Conference.

RODOLFO SEGURA: HE KEEPS HIS CHIN UP ON THE HARDCOURT

Sports Weekly Magazine

October 31-November 7, 1975

The crowd had started sparse in the Second Conference of the PBA. But last October 9 at the Araneta Coliseum, a large crowd came to see the classic match between the top two favorites in the tournament — Toyota and Crispa-Floro.

The going was tough. The hordes of Toyota fans in the Coliseum were shrieking at the top of their voices. The score was even at 108. With barely three seconds to go, Rudy Segura received a long pass from Jake Rojas, Rudy made a line drive from the left angle and laid up to beat the gun. And Segura’s heroics clinched the game for the Comets at 110 to Crispa’s 108.

The ‘Double Slider’ that beat the Redmanizers (July 18-25, 1975)

Toyota found a strategy to beat Crispa for the first time in three tries as described by Sports Weekly Magazine in a July 1975 issue. The Comets’ win over the Redmanizers came during their first semifinal meeting in the PBA First Conference.

STORMY CHARGE TO THE PENNANT

The ‘Double Slider’ that beat the Redmanizers

Sports Weekly Magazine

Published July 18-25, 1975

Tag us repetitious, chirping bird, but still Tuesday night at the Dome, Coach Dante Silverio proved to all and sundry the basketball mind he’s got can pull off a stormy but successful pennant charge in the bedazzled first conference of the play-for-money league.

It was clear case of Dante outwitting Baby Dalupan and the Comets outplaying the Redmanizers, a complete turnabout of their first two meetings where the latter made mincemeat out of the vaunted, Snake Jones-reinforced Toyotas.

Yet it was done the hard way; a spectacular way which further added spice to the already growing friendly rivalry between two of the country’s most respectable coaches., the brains and bench-mentors of two of the most powerful basketball teams ever assembled in the land.