Eagles bluer than blue, vow to soar anew

MANILA, Philippines — Suddenly finding themselves vulnerable to the opposition after their near-sweep, the Ateneo Blue Eagles now have to shake off that previously unfamiliar losing feeling and summon back their old high-flying form as they strive to take flight once more.

A week after seeing their 13-0 record stained by rival La Salle at the end of elims, the top-seeded Eagles fell to an ambush from No. 4 Far Eastern U in the Final Four Sunday, 67-80, and got forced to a win-or-go-home match by the Tams tomorrow.

In the meantime, nemesis La Salle waits for its challenger in the best-of-three series for the UAAP Season 80 men’s basketball crown after taking care of business against third-seeded F4 rival Adamson, 82-75, last Saturday.

“We have to accept the humility of the scenario. We have to get back to understanding what we do well, and sort of rediscover who  we are,” AdMU coach Tab Baldwin said.

“It’s there, there’s no question it’s still there. But today I thought we played like a young team and we shouldn’t. Yes, there’s youth but we’ve been together long enough and we shouldn’t play like a young team. We have to figure it out,” he added.

FEU, a team handled by Ateneo alum Olsen Racela, outworked the usually efficient Blue Eagles to take away the latter’s twice-to-beat semis bonus.

“I told the team at halftime ‘have you guys realized that we’re on a one-game losing streak?’ Now it’s a two game losing streak and I think there’s something there,” Baldwin said.

Thirteen wins uninterrupted and something’s got to give.

“I can feel it myself as a coach. Out there, late in the second half when I knew we weren’t going to come back and win that game, I was thinking to myself ‘Gosh, I haven’t been in this mode of thinking for a long time, over a year’,” the Kiwi-American related.

But he’s confident the Eagles will pick themselves up and soar anew.

“We just have to play better and play much closer to what we’re capable of,” he said.