GLORIOUS MOMENTS

SECOND OF A SERIES

- By THE STAR SPORTS STAFF

Reaching milestones was the main theme for the PBA's best and brightest.

Meralco shed its "always-a-bridesmaid" tag with an amazing breakthrough championship in the Season 48 Philippine Cup.

And the Bolts hit paydirt after a 13-year hunt at the expense of the San Miguel Beermen, the gold standard of the league's centerpiece conference, 4-2.

Chris Newsome, who experienced all four of Meralco's previous heartaches in the Governors' Cup finals against Barangay Ginebra, drained the winning jumper in the 80-78 Game 6 squeaker that finally sealed the Bolts' date with destiny.

After Meralco's maiden triumph, it was sister team TNT's turn to go back-to-back in the Season 49 Governors' Cup and collar its 10th trophy overall.

With the prolific Rondae Hollis-Jefferson on return tour and coach Chot Reyes back after his Gilas Pilipinas tenure, the Tropang Giga repeated against Justin Brownlee and the Gin Kings, 4-2.

San Miguel Beer's June Mar Fajardo continued to add to his legend as he won his eighth MVP and 10th and 11th Best Player of the Conference plums - both record-extending feats as he led SMB to the top in the Commissioner's Cup and second in the All-Filipino.

NorthPort's John Amores also made the year-end list, but for the wrong reason. The controversial guard allegedly fired shots at an opposing player after a pickup game altercation in Laguna, leading to an attempted homicide lawsuit that consequently resulted in a one-conference suspension by the PBA and revocation of license by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB).

Melvin Jerusalem and Pedro Taduran, Filipino world champions in the lightest among the boxing divisions, delivered the heaviest blows in the year.

Jerusalem, who turns 32 on Feb. 22, stunned Japanese Yudai Shigeoka last March in Nagoya and became the WBC minimumweight champion.

Six months later, the boxer from Bukidnon defended his 105-lb title against Mexican Luis Castillo on home soil.