The 1990 PBA All Filipino Conference Finals was the best-of-7 basketball championship series of the 1990 PBA All-Filipino Conference, and the conclusion of the conference's playoffs. The Presto Tivolis and Purefoods Hotdogs played for the 46th championship contested by the league.
The Presto Tivolis wins their 6th PBA title and its fourth All-Filipino crown with a 4-3 series victory against Purefoods Hotdogs, which failed to win the prestigious All-Filipino plum for the third straight year, their finals series marked only the third time the championship went into a full route of seven games.
Presto Tivolis, getting the big plays from Arnie Tuadles and Zaldy Realubit, frustrated the Hotdogs, who failed to cash in on their winning plays in the dying seconds. Alvin Patrimonio muffed a gift shot, failing to complete a three-point play and preventing the Hotdogs from taking a crucial one-point lead in the final 30 seconds. Arnie Tuadles scored underneath the basket with the foul from Patrimonio, giving the Tivolis a 97-95 lead with 14 seconds left, Tuadles missed his bonus free throw but Zaldy Realubit outwitted Jerry Codinera for the rebound and stretch in for a lay-up and fished a foul from Codinera to seal the game. The Tivolis had their largest lead of 13 points at 62-49 in the third quarter, the Hotdogs erased that deficit with Nelson Asaytono erupting with 17 of his night-high 27 points in the fourth quarter as Purefoods came closer to within a point, 87-88, with 4:38 remaining.
The first two quarters ended in a deadlock at 30-all and 60-all. In the third period, the Hotdogs with Jack Tanuan playing quality minutes, relieving Jerry Codinera, took a commanding 21-point lead several times, the last at 97-76, Gerry Esplana and Allan Caidic rallied the Tivolis back in the game and were only down by 12 going into the fourth quarter. Presto looks set for a come-from-behind win and a 2-0 series advantage after Caidic scored to give the Tivolis a 124-123 lead with less than five seconds remaining, Presto coach Jimmy Mariano committed the biggest blunder of the series, calling a timeout with two seconds left on the Hotdogs' possession, with Purefoods having no more timeouts. On the Hotdogs' inbound play, the ball went high-up and landed on Jerry Codinera's hands who scored on a buzzer-beating lay-up, ruled goal-tending on Zaldy Realubit, to give the Hotdogs the victory.
Purefoods leads by as much as 15 points during the second period. The Tivolis got a big lift for the second time from Arnie Tuadles and Zaldy Realubit, regain the upperhand as the Hotdogs again folded up in the homestretch, Nelson Asaytono lost the ball on a crucial inbound play in the final minutes of the game.
The Hotdogs padded their lead to 100-88 at the end of the third quarter as Bernie Fabiosa took over Dindo Pumaren's playmaking chores for 20 quality minutes. Allan Caidic managed to score 32 points, including six triples, but for a moment lost his temper on the face of Glenn Capacio's leech-like guarding. Purefoods outrebounded Presto, 50-31.
Experience once again took over for Presto in the decisive last six minutes as coach Jimmy Mariano fielded in Willie Generalao, who quarterbacked the Tivolis' stirring offensive as they outscored the Hotdogs, 14-6. Abe King smothered two attempts by Alvin Patrimonio in that telling stretch and soared high for a tip-in that gave Presto a 116-113 lead, going into the last three minutes of the game.
Purefoods raced to a 21-6 lead early and took the half at 63-49, a triple by Al Solis during the third quarter started a 9-0 run that gave the Hotdogs their biggest lead of 27 points at 80-53, the closest the Tivolis came within was 14 points early in the fourth period at 96-82, Jojo Lastimosa quickly scored on a jumper and a 7-0 blast put the Hotdogs on top by 21 points, 103-82.[1]
The final game of the series, the odds were stacked in favor of Purefoods to win the All-Filipino title as Presto Tivolis were faced with a tough task playing without its number 1 gunner, Allan Caidic. In Game Six, Caidic injured his left hand while trying to ballhawk off Glenn Capacio, before that unfortunate incident, Caidic was averaging 29 points a game in the titular series, right from the opening buzzer, the Tivolis allowed the Hotdogs to take the lead only once at 4-3 when a 10-0 burst gave Presto a nine-point spread at 13-4, from a 19-19 standoff, Arnie Tuadles and Onchie dela Cruz combined in a searing breakaway to give Presto a 42-27 lead en route to a 43-35 halftime advantage, successive triples by Naning Valenciano and Glenn Capacio cut the Tivolis' lead to four early in the third quarter, 45-49, but Abe King, Arnie Tuadles and Willie Generalao sparked another scoring salvo that made it a 16-point bulge, 67-51, with 2:56 left in the third, the Hotdogs tried to employ a trapping fullcourt press, the ploy only got them to within nine points, 71-80, as the Tivolis couldn't seem to do anything wrong on the offensive end of the floor. Arnie Tuadles was picture-perfect in scoring a game-high 33 points before fouling out with 3:57 remaining, Presto up by 15 points, 95-80, Manny Victorino capitalized on the loss of Purefoods center Jerry Codinera, who saw action for only seven minutes after having tested positive for viral hepatitis, Jack Tanuan and Gido Babilonia were dismal flops in Game Seven as they tried to fill in the shoes of Codinera, while Nelson Asaytono couldn't get his game going and was limited to only three points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field.[2]
