Import Cyrus Mann and Bernie Fabiosa
made the big plays down the stretch as Crispa beat Toyota in the
first game of the 1976 PBA Second Conference Finals. Atoy Co
topscored for Crispa with 30 points.
Crispa shades Toyota, 95-92
By Ding Marcelo
Bulletin Today
Published Saturday November 13, 1976
Crispa scrambled o a 95-92 victory over
Toyota last night, relying on two electrifying steals by Bernard
Fabiosa in the last 60 seconds, in the opener of their best-of-five
series for the Philippine Basketball Association second conference
championship at the Araneta Coliseum.
Fabiosa, fresh from a three-game
suspension, practically broke the backs of the rallying Comets who
led for most of the evening as he magnificently teamed up with
American import Cyrus Mann in the last five minutes of the tense,
excruciating struggle that seemed to build up to volcanic explosion
going into the final second.
Crispa surged ahead with barely five
minutes left, 84-82, as the Redmanizers, starring the uncontrollable
Fortunato Co Jr., unleashed a 7-0 bomb that put them ahead from a
79-82 deficit.
After Comet forward Howard Smith
narrowed the gap to 84-86, Fabiosa started his heroics by sinking two
pressure-laden charities before Robert Jaworski and Francis Arnaiz
uncorked their own 6-2 salvo that settled the count at 90-all.
Mann broke the deadlock with a pair of
foul shots and then the first of Fabiosa's consecutive steals was
pulled off, first against Ramon Fernandez to which Mann scored a
charity, 93-90, 45 seconds left.
Fabiosa capped off a sterling evening
by another steal, this time against Francis Arnaiz in which he drew a
foul as he raced downcourt with Arnaiz and Jaworski hot on his trail.
Jaworski emerged with a cut under his
eye during that particular play but the infraction was spotted on
teammate Fernandez as the two reportedly bumped into each other
during the scramble for the loose ball.
The terrible struggle practically left
the sell-out crowd of about 30,000 limped with excitement while
themselves adding fervor to the already fire-up contenders with their
partisan uproar.
Mann summed it all up when he described
the contest with a terse “Very tough, very tough,” comment after
the game. “Nothing like it,” he added.
Coach Baby Dalupan said the breaks in
the ferocious last five minutes of the game were the factors to his
boys' victory that made it 17-all in their ongoing series with the
Comets that began last year.
Co was the hottest man on the court as
he delivered the unerring long toms that kept Crispa abreast of
Toyota which threatened many times to break away.
Twice the Comets led by 12, 22-10 and
24-12, but by the end of the half, the lead was down to three, 40-37,
and going into the final quarter, it was 70-67, also for Toyota.
It was in this particular juncture that
Co was irrepressible. He banged in 22 of his topscoring points in the
second and third quarters and contributed four in the final period
that also saw Philip Cezar deliver his heroics by exploding four
points, including the go-ahead basket.
Definitely outshadowed by the grim
Crispa-Toyota match was Royal Tru-Orange's upset win over U-Tex,
127-122, in their own series for third place.
The second game of the series will be
played tomorrow and the third on Tuesday.
Ramon Fernandez was the brightest star
on the Toyota side as he banged in 22 points while taking a slim edge
in his titanic clash with Cezar.
Smith, playing the more important role
in the face of Byron “Snake” Jones' surprising lethargy, finished
with 18 while Jaworski and Arnaiz had 16 and 12, respectively.
Crispa – 95
Co 30
P. Cezar 15
Guidaben 10
Fabiosa 9
Mann 9
Soriano 6
Calilan 4
Hubalde 4
Dionisio 4
Hubalde 2
Bunton 2
Varela 0
Toyota – 92
Fernandez 22
Smith 18
Arnaiz 16
Jaworski 12
Acuna 10
Jones 6
Marcelo 4
Rojas 2
Segura 2
Bauzon 0
Cortez 0
Crispa 16 21 30 28 – 95
Toyota 24 16 30 22 – 92
Refs: E. Cruz, R. Bartolome
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