The Orange Juicers were unbeaten with nine straight victories but 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.
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.
[3] June 25: Sunkist stays unbeaten and zoomed to their fifth straight win and on top of the Commissioners Cup standings as they demolished All-Filipino rival Alaska Milkmen, 103-87.
[5] November 12: Stevin Smith again found a way out for Sunkist as he buried a game-deciding three-pointer with 16.1 seconds to play that nipped Formula Shell, 98-96 in overtime.