CHRIS Newsome refused to dwell on his sorry miss late in Meralco's loss to Magnolia on Friday night, saying such things can happen to the best of 'em.
With Meralco down two points with 3.1 seconds left, Newsome found himself wide-open after a solid screen and KG Canaleta threw a perfect lob pass off an inbound play.
The Fil-Am guard out of Ateneo, however, inexplicably blew the point-blank shot, allowing the Hotshots to escape with an 81-79 victory in the PBA Commissioner's Cup.
“He threw it up and I missed,” said Newsome, when asked about the play afterwards. “Breaks of the game. It happens.”
Newsome actually had a steady game, finishing with 15 points, five rebounds, and seven assists even though he made just five of 12 from the field.
But he was quick to shrug off the heartbreaking loss, refusing to feel down with a crucial game against Barangay Ginebra looming in the horizon.
“Of course, it’s never a good feeling to miss something like that. But you can take it two ways. You can either beat yourself up or take it, learn from it, and move on. That’s what I’m doing. Take it, learn from it, move on to the next game.
“It’s not the end of the season for us. We still have a long way to go. Ginebra is coming up after the All-Star game and we go on from there,” said Newsome.
Despite the loss, Meralco is still on the upper echelon of the team standings at 3-2 (win-loss) and still within striking distance of joint first-placers Rain or Shine and TNT.
“I think we are playing very decent basketball, especially defensively. I think we are able to hold teams down. I think we are one or two on defense. We want to be known as a defensive team.
“Moving forward, we want to keep that. Hopefully, our offense will improve and find ways to score and get the other guys going,” said Newsome.
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