Newsome gains back-to-back PBA Player of the Week citations

MANILA, Philippines — Chris Newsome emerged as the PBA Press Corps-Pilipinas Live Player of the Week for the second straight time after leading Meralco to a superb finish to the elimination round of the Philippine Cup.

Newsome had 16 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal in Meralco’s 82-73 win over Barangay Ginebra last Friday to get the nod for the distinction covering the week from May 28 to June 1.

Jayson Castro of TNT was last back-to-back PBAPC Player of the Week awardee, doing so on August 3-7, and August 10-14 during the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.

With Newsome’s play, the Bolts capped the eliminations with three straight wins and a 6-5 win-loss record before plunging into action in the Basketball Champions League Asia where they will be up against the continent’s best club teams.

Meralco also carries momentum into the Philippine Cup quarterfinals following a slow start for the reigning champions when they went 3-5 to start their title defense.

“Coming into this game, we really wanted to make sure that our destiny is in our hands and we didn’t want to leave it up to somebody else,” said Newsome after the Barangay Ginebra game.

“We want to really come out and play playoff atmosphere type of basketball and that’s what we saw. It was a classic Ginebra-Meralco game but for us, it’s really about getting through our lows. We really had deep lows this conference, and we just wanted to get through those, stay together, and come out and battle all the way through because you never know what could happen,” said Newsome.

Newsome beat the likes of Adrian Nocum of Rain or Shine, Almond Vosotros of TNT, and Javee Mocon of NLEX for the weekly plum given by sportswriters from broadsheets, tabloids, and online platforms covering the PBA beat.