Tamaraws on the go (Dec. 16, 1976)

There seems to be no way Crispa can stop Toyota after two games of the 1976 PBA All-Philippine Championship finals, as suggested by Bulletin Today sports editor Lito Fernandez.

Tamaraws on the go

THE NEUTRAL CORNER
By Lito Fernandez

Bulletin Today

Published Thursday December 16, 1976

A Crispa fan who was watching the Crispa-Toyota game on TV Tuesday night stood up early in the fourth quarter after the Redmanizers committed another passing error. “Wala. Talo nang talaga. Mananalo ba 'yan e tapon nang tapon (Crispa is finished. How can the Redmanizers win when they always blunder away points?),” he blurted as he steamed out of the room.

Indeed the Redmanizers contributed to their own downfall by playing a highly erratic game. All told Baby Dalupan's boys committed 22 errors, including three straight wild passes by Cyrus Mann in the third quarter, as against 17 for the Tamaraws. In addition, the Redmanizers had 27 turnovers against 22 for the Tamaraws.

Crispa's final two errors in the overtime drove the last nails into the Redmanizers' coffin leading by only one point, they committed another passing error which Francis Arnaiz, playing his usual top-caliber game, parlayed into Toyota's go-ahead basket. In the ensuing play, Fortunato Co tarnished his game-high 41 points when he stepped on the endline, an error which led to Arnaiz's insurance basket.

Errors, of course, tell only half of the story. The Tamaraws, shooting for the only title that eluded them last year, beat the Redmanizers in other departments to completely dominate their arch-rivals in the pulsating 53-minute encounter. It was Toyota's third straight win over Crispa and the Tamaraws' 21st win in 40 meetings with the Redmanizers.

In rebounds, the Tamaraws enjoyed an unbelievable 50-34 edge, 32-26 off the defensive boards and 18-8 off the offensive boards. This was indeed surprising because in the first game of the best-of-five series which Toyota won by 10 points, 100-90, the two teams came out equal in this department with 50 rebounds each.

Dante Silverio's charges played a more cohesive game as shown in the assists department where the Tamaraws held a big 48-37 edge. This was short of amazing considering the fact that Silverio for the first time in the continuing Crispa-Toyota series, used his bench-warmers more often.

Three of these second stringers – Virgilio Cortez, Orlando Bauzon and Aurelio Clarino – played well that they even outscored many of Crispa's regulars. Cortez shot 10 points, Bauzon knocked in 6 and Clarino contributed 4 for a total of 20 points. On the Crispa side, Bernie Fabiosa scored only 6, Rodolfo Soriano 3, Bill Bunton and Tito Varela 2 each while Gregorio Dionisio and Reynaldo Franco went blank for a total of 13 points.

With Byron “Snake” Jones and Howard Smith outplaying Mann and Bunton, Toyota again had its fastbreaks working. The Tams attempted 31 fastbreaks and completed 20 of them for 37 points while the Redmanizers attempted 26 and completed only 7 for 12 points.

Indeed, it seems Silverio has everything working perfectly for him in his bench battle with Dalupan and unless the latter reverses the trend, the Redmanizers will see their bid for an unprecedented grandslam mercilessly trampled by the Tamaraws.