Denison Rey A. Dalupang (philstar.com) - February 15, 2018 - 2:00pm

MANILA, Philippines – Chris Newsome had a chance to redeem himself after letting the game against NLEX slip out of Meralco's hands last week.

On Wednesday night, with the stakes higher and a situation seemingly replaying in front of him, the Bolts guard made sure he's not going to make the same mistake.

The Filipino-American guard stuck to Jeff Chan as Phoenix threatened to pull the rug on Meralco with the clock about to expire. The former bothered the veteran sniper from the top of the key enough to send the volley off target.

Last week, against their sister team Road Warriors, Newsome took on hotshot rookie Kiefer Ravena. But a feign of shimmy had the Bolt losing his man — and eventually, the game.



"I was just playing defense," Newsome said of his stop against Chan. "I mean, it's either you stop them or you don't."

"At that point it's just playing the best defense that you can. Obviously, you can't really foul so you just play the best defense you can," he added.

Newsome's play hit two — actually, three — birds with one stone: making up for a lackluster scoring, erasing the bitter taste nearly winning over a streaking team, and, most importantly, stopping a three-game dry spell in the Philippine Cup.

But the 27-year-old former Rookie of the Year was quick to move on from the crucial execution he mounted. He said he's wary of Meralco’s tough schedule ahead.

Meralco takes on Barangay Ginebra in a rematch of last year's Governors' Cup finals this Sunday at the Philippine Arena. Then, the Bolts will cap off the elimination round against the Magnolia Hotshots, who have notoriously made mincemeat of most of their assignments.

"Big game on Sunday. I think it's still at Philippine Arena so of course we got a little bitter taste still in our mouth from the last time we were there," Newsome said. "Hopefully we can come out and play with a lot of energy and be focused on that game."

"We just have to continue playing defense [and] get stops. Sometimes, things don't go right on offense and it kind of carries over into our defense. That's something that we focus on, no matter what happens on offense. We're going to try to play hard defense," he closed.