Chris Newsome delivered at crunchtime to power Meralco past San Miguel Beer, 93-89, in Game 3 for a 2-1 lead in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals Sunday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The veteran guard nailed the go-ahead three-pointer with 34 seconds remaining before sinking two more insurance free throws in the last 11.3 ticks as the Bolts regained the upper hand in the best-of-seven series.

Game 4 is on Wednesday at the same venue.  

Just like in Game 2, the crucial battle went back-and-forth until the final half-minute of the match but this time Meralco made sure that there would be no more late-second meltdown.

“Just looking at the stats, 15 lead changes and 16 times tied. You could just see how close these games are. I thought we were OK with our execution. They threw some zone at us, we’re gonna see more zone,” Bolts coach Luigi Trillo said.

Newsome scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half including the last five markers of the ballgame.

Meralco skipper Raymond Almazan rebounded from a scoreless outing in Game 2 with a double-double of 17 points and 13 rebounds to go with three blocks, one assist and one steal before fouling out with 2:05 left.

Bong Quinto had 16 points and six boards, Chris Banchero posted 10 markers while Cliff Hodge logged in 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Bolts, who are now two wins away from capturing a breakthrough crown.

Meralco saw its 88-84 lead evaporate as San Miguel scored five straight points capped by two foul shots from June Mar Fajardo to put the Beermen ahead, 89-88, with 51.9 seconds left after Newsome turned the ball over.     

Mo Tautuaa came off the bench to finish with 19 points, CJ Perez had 18 markers while Marcio Lassiter, who nailed the game-winning trey in  Game 2, had 12 points.

Fajardo played 41 minutes and got 12 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks, while Don Trollano and Jeron Teng submitted 11 and 10 markers for the Beermen.  

Meralco entered halftime with a slim, 48-46, lead.

The Beermen banked on its bench mob led by Tautuaa to keep themselves in the match despite Fajardo and Perez getting addled by three early fouls.

Tautuaa scored 10 points and grabbed three rebounds in under 11 minutes of action in the first half for San Miguel, which had a 34-9 bench points advantage after the first two quarters.

Box scores:

MERALCO (93) --- Newsome 26, Almazan 17, Quinto 16, banchero 10, Hodge 10, Maliksi 8, Torres 2, Pascual 2, Bates 2, Rios 0, Caram 0

SAN MIGUEL (89) --- Tautuaa 19, Perez 18, Lassiter 12, Fajardo 12, Trollano 11, Teng 10, Cruz 7, Ross 0, Brondial 0, Enciso 0

Quarters: 28-24, 48-46, 71-70, 93-89