1995 Sunkist Orange Juicers season

The 1995 Sunkist Orange Juicers season was the 6th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Off-season transactions

Awards

• Vergel Meneses bag the season's Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, the Aerial Voyager has also won Best Player of the Conference honors and was the MVP of the PBA All-Star game.
• Ronnie Grandison was voted the Commissioner's Cup Best Import, leading Sunkist to the title.
• Stevin Smith was named the Governor's Cup Best Import.

Summary

Starting the 21st season, RFM Corporation decided to change its team name from Swift Mighty Meaties to Sunkist Orange Juicers, a brand that used to have a PBA team back in 1983 under a different owner. The Orange Juicers bolster its already talented lineup with the acquisition of national player and Adamson Falcon Kenneth Duremdes, whom they got as the third pick overall in the rookie draft.

In the All-Filipino Cup, Sunkist finish on top of the standings with a 7-3 won-loss slate. The Juicers won six of their eight games in the semifinals to advance into the championship playoffs, they battled the Alaska Milkmen for the All-Filipino Cup title in a finals rematch as the two teams previously fought in the championship in last season's Governors Cup where Alaska won in six games. Sunkist this time prevailed in a hard-fought seven-game series, Vergel Meneses played the hero's role in the deciding Game Seven, the Juicers were down by four, 69-73, with 25.4 seconds remaining in regulation, Meneses buried a triple to cut Alaska's lead to a point. The game went into overtime and Sunkist won, 87-78, as the Juicers captured their first All-Filipino title and third overall crown. Sunkist lost Rudy Distrito after Game four of the finals series when he committed a horrendous shove on a driving Jeffrey Cariaso. Distrito was banned by the PBA for the rest of the season.

Sunkist brought in former Purefoods import Ronnie Grandison in the Commissioners Cup. The Orange Juicers were unbeaten with nine straight victories, starting with a 104-98 win over Purefoods on June 11, ^[1] followed by a victory over Ginebra, 118-97. ^[2] Sta.Lucia was their next victim as they coast to a 110-97 win, ^[3] the Juicers then scored a come-from-behind 98-95 win over Shell for their fourth victory. ^[4] Win number five came against Alaska, 103-87 on June 25. ^[5] The Orange Juicers failed to complete a 10-game sweep when they lost to Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs, 81-91, on the last playing date of the eliminations on July 18.

Sunkist arranged a best-of-five semifinal series encounter with fourth-seeded Purefoods by winning their last game in the quarterfinals against Formula Shell, 106-103 on August 8. ^[6] Going up against their two-time tormentors in the conference who were slightly favored, Sunkist won Game One, 85-83, on Vergel Meneses' buzzer-beating jump shot. The series went into a deciding fifth game where the Juicers led by as much as 16 points in the fourth quarter and starved off repeated rallies by the Hotdogs to win, 105-99, and set the stage for the third straight Sunkist-Alaska finale. The Orange Juicers won for the second time in a finals series against the Alaska Milkmen, four games to two, to keep their Grandslam hopes alive.

In the Governor's Cup, Sunkist has gotten an impressive reinforcement in Stevin Smith, nickname "Hedake", he often hit clutch treys in the closing seconds of some of the Orange Juicers' exciting wins, particularly their elimination game against Alaska on October 31 where Smith hit a triple with 1.9 seconds left in a 101-100 victory, ^[7] and in their first game in the semifinal round against Formula Shell on November 12, a game-deciding three-pointer by Smith with 16.1 seconds remaining lift Sunkist to a 98-96 overtime win. ^[8] The Orange Juicers lost three crucial games towards the end of the semifinals with Formula Shell pulling off a 113-103 win that ended the Juicers' Grandslam bid. Sunkist placed third in the Governors Cup.

Roster

Pos. No. Player School C 4 Bonel Balingit University of Visayas G 8 Alfonso Solis University of Visayas G 9 Emmanuel Victoria San Beda F 10 Enrique Reyes Ateneo de Manila F 11 Nelson Asaytono University of Manila F 13 Elpidio Villamin G 14 Rudy Distrito (S) UE G 16 Marcelino Albarillo University of Mindanao C 17 Alejandro Paguinto FEU F 18 Vergel Meneses Jose Rizal College F 19 Kenneth Duremdes Adamson University G 23 Ricardo Marata South Western University C 35 Zaldy Realubit San Jose-Recoletos F 31 Ronnie Grandison (C) University of New Orleans G 2 Stevin Smith (G) Arizona State University Position Name/s Head coach:  Derrick Pumaren Assistants: Gabby Velasco (S) - Suspended for the season, (C) - Commissioner's Cup import, (G) - Governor's Cup import '

_{Team Manager: Elmer Yanga}

References