IT was a play Chris Newsome has done in practice time and time again.
So when he buried the clutch jumper that clinched Meralco's first-ever PBA championship on Sunday night, it almost felt routine for the veteran Fil-Am guard.
“It’s a shot that I worked on all the time. I put thousands of reps to that shot,” Newsome said of the game-winning jumper off Don Trollano in the final 1.3 seconds of an exciting Game 6 of the Philippine Cup Finals that went down to the wire, 80-78.
READ Meralco a PBA champion at long last after riveting Game 6 win over SMB
“A lot of guys out there, a lot of you out there might find amazing I get tsamba, but at the same time, that’s something I worked on everyday so for me and some of the guys in that locker room, it was no surprise that it went in.”
It was the first league championship for Newsome, who was also adjudged the PBA Press Corps-Honda Finals MVP in the title series that ended at 4-2.
The 33-year-old finished with 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists. He took over in the final quarter where he scored nine points, including that huge basket that countered the stunning three-pointer of San Miguel big man June Mar Fajardo which tied the game at 78.
The Gilas Pilipinas stalwart gave credit to the coaching staff and his Meralco teammates for trusting him to take the last shot with the outcome of the game on the line.
“The game winner, ‘I’ve got to give credit to coaching staff for drawing up that play. And my teammates trusted me to take that shot,” said Newsome.
Courage and not worrying about failing are what kept Newsome going during the game which saw Meralco lose a 17-point first half lead, and a 10-point advantage in the final 5:39.
“The story behind it is just to have courage. To have courage to be able to thrive on things, and even if you fail, it’s still okay because you can learn from it, continue to draw and will make you a better person at the end of the day,” he said.
“I’ve learned from all my failures, I’ve failed against Ginebra many times in the finals and those failures allowed me to push and elevate my game and to work on those things that I felt I needed to work on and you saw it paid off today.”
And yes, Newsome finally has that champion tag in him.
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