1988 Añejo Rum 65ers season

The 1988 Añejo Rum 65ers season was the 10th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Season Summary (Key Dates)

• Ginebra San Miguel places 4th in the Open Conference, losing a chance to force a playoff for the finals berth against Purefoods when they bowed to the Hotdogs in Overtime, 109-111 on the last day of the semifinals, the Ginebras lost to Alaska Milk, 3-2 in their best-of-five series for third place, their consolation was import Jamie Waller winning the best import award. Beginning the All-Filipino Conference, the La Tondeña franchise change their name with its new product known as Añejo Rum 65.
• In the All-Filipino, Añejo Rum debut with a 93-97 loss to Alaska on June 28. The 65ers finish the two-round eliminations with a 7-5 card, split all their meetings with the rest of the PBA teams, and won twice over the RP nationals.
• July 26: Añejo lost a won-ballgame against San Miguel Beer, with five seconds left, the 65ers leading, 103-102, Abet Guidaben almost fumbled the ball but threw a bank shot with 1 second left, the beermen won the game, 104-103, their first win over their sister team for the season, it was then discovered a scoring error occurred somewhere in the second period crediting two points for San Miguel, wherein they should have lost the ballgame, the Commissioners' office turned down the Anejo protest.
• August 14: 2nd day of the semifinals, Añejo and Great Taste figured in a basketbrawl, involving Sonny Cabatu, Dennis Abbatuan, Abe King of Great Taste and Dante Gonzalgo of Anejo, who crashed into the Great taste' bench while going for the loose ball, seconds left before halftime, the Milkmasters up, 58-43. the 65ers, down by 17 at the start of the 4th period, rallied to win, 111-104, emotions ran high after the game that Great Taste' Allan Caidic beat up a fan from the stands.
• September 4: Añejo Rum won the knockout game over San Miguel Beer, 102-100 on Romulo Mamaril's buzzer-beater off Joey Loyzaga's feed, described by Jaworski as "God's play" the 65ers clinch the finals slot vs Purefoods.
• September 13: Añejo Rum 65 won the All-Filipino Crown at the expense of Purefoods Hotdogs, down by 19 points (57-76) in the 3rd quarter, forces Overtime at 119-all on Jaworski's game-tying basket with 2 ticks to go in regulation, and a 16-5 windup in extension gave the Rummasters its second PBA title, and the fifth squad to win the All-Filipino diadem.
• September 25: The Rummasters won the mini-tournament, PBA/IBA cup over Alaska, 128-126, with Bobby Parks, borrowed from Shell, as their import. see:1988 PBA/IBA World Challenge Cup
• October 13: On the night brownouts hit the nation, and the whole parts of Metro Manila covered with darkness, with games neither televised or shown on TV, Billy Ray Bates played his last PBA game as Añejo Rum 65 bowed to Presto Ice Cream, 122-105, Bates scored a miserable 16 points.
• October 30: Añejo formally enters the semifinal round, and ended Purefoods' amazing run in its very first year, along with Abet Guidaben's hopes for a back-to-back MVP, with a 157-150 overtime victory.
• November 22: The Rummasters were booted out of the finals picture, following a 127-118 loss to San Miguel, imports Joe Ward and Tommy Davis combined for 105 points out of the 118 Anejo total output, with Joe Ward hitting 75 points.
• November 29: Añejo defeated Presto, 168-165, in a high-scoring contest, to ousted the Ice Cream makers, and gave Shell, and coach Dante Silverio, a free ride to the finals.
• December 11: As the 1988 season comes to a close, Game 4 of the battle for third place between Añejo and Presto had another free-for-all, and bench-clearing incident following import Tommy Davis hard foul on Philip Cezar in the 3rd quarter, with cooler heads intervened after, the Rummasters prevailed, 171-145. a lot of players were fined for that melee, with the stiffest fine on both Añejo imports.

Roster

_{Assistant Coach: Rino Salazar Team Manager: Bernabe Navarro}

• I - Import

References