Deschon Winston was literally on pace to at least hit Alvin Pasaol’s 49-point outing back on October 4, 2017 on Tuesday during De La Salle University’s game against University of Santo Tomas.
At the end of the third quarter, Winston already had 33 points on 14-of-19 shooting.
According to UAAP statistician Pong Ducanes, Winston had the same number of points as Pasaol and Ben Mbala after three quarters during University of the East’s clash with La Salle on that fateful October 2017 night.
No one could stop the Central Michigan University product. Well, there was one man who could — Green Archers head coach Derrick Pumaren.
With the game already out of reach entering the last 10 minutes of the game, Pumaren pulled out Winston.
“He cannot miss today. The only guy who could stop him today was me because I pulled him out,” quipped Pumaren.
“That was able to stop his 33 points.”
“I guess it’s true. That’s a true statement,” giggled Winston.
La Salle ended up cruising with a 112-83 win to keep hold of solo third.
Pumaren though was just glad that Winston finally broke out of his slump.
After dropping 22 points in his UAAP debut, Winston’s average dropped to 8.5 points on 32.1-percent shooting prior to Tuesday’s game.
“It’s long overdue after that first game when he had 22. I was expecting anytime that he will get back to his groove again,” said Pumaren.
“Today’s game, he showed it. Hopefully, he gets more consistent because we will be needing that more with the tough games ahead for us.”
Winston, meanwhile, deflected the credit to Evan Nelle (6 assists), Justine Baltazar (7 assists), and the rest of the Green Archers for finding him.
“It was a team effort. We had 25 assists. I could not have done it without my teammates, could not have done it without them finding me,” said the 24-year-old Filipino-American guard.
“Just got to thank my teammates for giving me the ball while I was on fire.”
Back in 2017, Pumaren rewarded Pasaol with some siopai and mami after his 49-point outburst.
So what did Winston ask from Pumaren?
“Ask for steak,” whispered Nelle to Winston.
“Okay steak!” responded Winston.
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