Chris McCullough admitted he doesn’t care much that he lost the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Best Import award to Terrence Jones on Sunday evening, as his main goal is to help the San Miguel Beermen win the championship.
“I don’t care about the Best Import [plum].
“He was here before I was here, first of all. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m just here to win a championship. That’s about it,” said the 24-year-old, who placed third in the race behind Jones and Justin Brownlee.
All the attention was on Jones after his coronation, but McCullough became the talk of the town hours later.
The 6-foot-10 forward churned out a monster outing of 27 points and 22 rebounds, alongside four assists, a steal, and a block. His performance propelled the Beermen past Jones and TNT KaTropa, 106-101, to tie the Finals at two games apiece.
McCullough made his presence felt, especially down the stretch. He made key baskets when the opposition were coming back from 15 down, including a putback dunk that widened their gap to 98-92 with 1:42 remaining.
Then when Jones pulled the KaTropa within just two with 40.3 seconds to go, McCullough located June Mar Fajardo underneath. He dished it to the San Miguel big man for a stab, widening their lead to 100-96 with 27.7 ticks left to play.
“I just saw him wide open because Jones tried to double and left June Mar wide open,” said McCullough of his pass.
The Beermen showed that they can now protect big leads after the last two games saw them give up 17-point edges. So McCullough hopes that they can hold on to their leads in the coming games of the best-of-seven series.
‘When we get the lead, we gotta make good plays and take care of the ball. Just make good plays to hold our lead.”
