For Chris Newsome, dwelling in the past won’t do any good.
The six-foot-two swingman has decided to move on after failing to finish a potential game-tying alley-oop play that led to the Meralco Bolts’ sour 79-81 defeat to Vernon Macklin and the Magnolia Hotshots, Friday night.
That end-game miss was just the last of the two shots he didn’t make in the closing seconds.
The first one occurred with around 11 seconds left, which was a mid-range jumper over Rafi Reavis that could have broken the 79-all deadlock.
“I threw it out and it missed. Breaks of the game, it happens,” lamented Newsome after the match at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, where he finished with all-around numbers of 15 points, seven assists, and five rebounds.
“Of course, it’s never a good feeling to miss some like that but I mean, we can only take it one or two ways,” he added.
“You can beat yourself for that or you can just take it, learn from it and move on. So that’s what I’m doing.
“The only thing that could be a takeaway from that play was that it was done nicely — everything but the shot, according to head coach Norman Black. “They executed it well though. He missed the shot,” said the champion mentor.
“That’s life.”
Still, even with the loss, the Bolts are in a good spot in the standings with a 3-2 card. And for Newsome, another thing that doesn’t make him hang his head down is the fact that Meralco are playing solid so far in the conference.
“We are playing pretty decent basketball, especially defensively,” said Newsome. “I think we’re able to hold teams down to… I don’t know but I think we’re number one or number two in defense. Yeah, I mean we’re a defensive team.
“We want to be known as a defensive team. We just want to make sure that what regardless of what happens, looking forward, we’re gonna keep that,” he added. “It’s not the end of the season for us, it’s still a long way to go.”
