La Salle’s Deschon Winston. –FILOIL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Graduating La Salle player Deschon Winston is back home and his main focus is bringing home a championship to the Green Archers.
In his first game back, Winston flipped the switch and finished with 25 points to propel La Salle past University of Santo Tomas, 86-65, in the Filoil Preseason tournament.
“Any team I play I come with the same competitive spirit. I come with the same fire even in practice so whenever I step on the court that switch comes on to stay aggressive and stay in attack mode,” Winston, who is coming off a vacation in the United States, said.
Entering his final year, the 6-foot-4 playmaker is keeping the memory of losing in UAAP Season 84’s Final Four fresh in his mind to keep him going.
“It’s definitely added motivation cause we fell short, so this being my last year I wanna take it further than we did last year,” he said.
Winston scored 26 in that loss to University of the Philippines and the guard-forward will have to carry forward that same type of scoring output next season as the Green Archers have lost the services of Justine Baltazar and Kurt Lojera.
Next season will be a tough challenge for head coach Derick Pumaren as he will have to manage a team filled with talents in the same position.
That problem, however, is something Winston is willing to embrace.
“We always get caught up in the roles like point and shooting guards, but now the game is so versatile. You have bigs who can shoot, pass and defend like Kevin [Quiambao] but now since the game is so versatile, I know I gotta be able to play all the positions,” the former Central Michigan University standout said.
He will be joined by the likes of Kevin Quiambao, Mark Nonoy and Evan Nelle for Season 85.