Sports World Magazine
August 28 – September 3, 1976
Tito Tagle
Your adventurous SW reporter set out to cover Cabanatuan’s PBA game between Noritake and Royal Tru-Orange Saturday. Betwixt intent and accomplishment lay not only an egg but a trail of hardship. For I’ve never motored to Cabanatuan, and in this case, one plus one was three: I merely asked friends who’ve been there how the road was and the reply was excellent. Since whenever I went north beyond Pampanga, I always passed through a junction in San Fernando which, I had been told not just once, led to Arayat and on to Cabanatuan, I presumed that this was the excellent road spoken of.
After an hour and 10 minutes of rugged terrain during which I got to the foot of Mount Arayat only to be told that the bridge toward Cabanatuan had gone down in the last typhoon (yet!), I finally exited at the San Fernando junction, motored back to the North Diversion road and took the correct way to Cabanatuan via Plaridel and Baliuag.
***
I finally made it to the Travel Lodge – where the PBA entourage roosted for the day – at around 6:15PM, or five hours since I started from Manila.
Of course, none of my PBA friends believed me.
Anyway, exciting as that Cabanatuan game was (Noritake won after an overtime, 139-133, while RTO’s Carl Bird reset the season’s individual game record with an output of 53), the PBA game of the week remained U/Tex’s triumph over Toyota Thursday last week.
The score was 113-103, but it was only in the last three minutes when the issue was really decided.
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U/Tex coach Narciso Bernardo’s key move was the recall of Lee Haven from the scorer’s box where he waited to lift 6’10 Dan Knight, and the key play – ironically – was a miss by Knight from the charity lane which prevented Haven’s immediate entry.
Knight had just tied the score at 97-all off Howard Smith’s fifth foul when he missed his second charity. Lim Eng Beng got the rebound and drilled in the takeover basket, 99-97.
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Byron (Snake) Jones, who (despite game’s outcome), certainly has the better moves and is speedier than the hulking Knight; for that matter, Smith is faster than Knight though foul-prone, subbed at the last three minutes point, and promptly missed a hook, Knight recovering. Rudolf Kutch drilled from the side for 101-97. Sonny Jaworski missed a jumper, Knight recovering. Lim Eng Beng banked one for 103-97.
The game down to just 50 seconds, was far from over. Jones had charitied twice off Kutch’s sixth and final foul, and Dante Silverio had ordered the damning press that might have still turned the tide of battle. But Bernardo had one timeout left, and he used it to fashion out the final strategy to foil Toyota’s bid to reverse the impending outcome.
***
Dante’s gamble was to two – or even three-man the ball carrier, and in the event of failure to recover, foul for possession. So, Odie Segura, Francis Arnaiz and Jaworski committed six fouls in those last 50 seconds of play.
Unfortunately for Toyota, Lim Eng Beng was on the receiving end on four occasions, and the ex-Quasar star delivered twin charities each time to finalize the margin at 10 points.
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Victory for U/Tex would have been impossible, however without the brilliant Kutch, who routed Mon Fernandez in a beautiful display between two of the country’s best slotmen turned forwards. Kutch delivered 31 points, and almost half of these came when Toyota threatened to break away in the closing minutes of the third quarter and early in the fourth.
Against Kutch’s 31 points, Fernandez could only make 10 – testimony to the defensive difficulties Mon ran into which greatly whittled his normal output.
***
During intermission, NMPC’s Emy Arcilla took the mike and made an appeal for contributions for Mindanao’s earthquak victims. Dante Silverio made a pledge of Php 50,000 – Php 14,000 from the 14 Comets and Php 36,000 from management. Tommy Manotoc, U/Tex team manager, also pledged in behalf of his company Php 50,000. The some-20 girls who went around for contributions in the ringside, lower box and upper box sections, garnered Php 4,312.71. The bleacherites must have added a good sum to the take after the game, Emy told them the girls be waiting at the exits.
It was the best move of the evening.
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