Tab Baldwin and the Ateneo Blue Eagles. Photo from UAAP Media

MANILA — Ateneo de Manila University’s woes still continue to pile up as the elimination round of the UAAP Season 87 nears its end. 

The Blue Eagles once again saw themselves on the losing end, this time against Far Eastern University, who handed the Ateneans a 65-54 defeat on Saturday at the Araneta Coliseum.

READ: Pasaol, Konateh lead the way as FEU dims Ateneo’s Final 4 hopes

Mo Konateh's rebounding was a thorn in the side of the Blue Eagles. The 6-foot-10 big man made it possible for the Tamaraws to tally a 20-5 advantage in second chance points, and a 51-40 cushion in the overall rebounding department.

"We know we have a front line that obviously really struggled against one player today, and of course, I'm talking about Mohamed Konateh," said Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin of the Gambian foreign student-athlete (FSA) who had 21 massive rebounds (13 def, 8 off).

"We just don't have the horses this year to battle against that. You know, we do everything we can. In the second half, we tried to pack in, and all of a sudden, FEU  — [a team that] collectively doesn't shoot the three very well — they start hitting threes from everywhere," added Baldwin of the Tamaraws who shot five treys in the last 20 minutes of action.

But aside from these factors, the multiple-time UAAP champion mentor acknowledged that it has just been a season that has exposed the many challenges that a young squad will go through as they look to find their identity.

"It has been a most difficult year," admitted Baldwin. "But not just for me. It's been difficult for players that are in positions that they're not ready for — playing in positions, some of them playing out of position."

"And you know, trying to give the team everything that they can, at the same time trying to learn, grow, mature, and develop, when you have that scenario, it's going to be frustrating. It's going to be stop and start, good patches and bad patches." 

Baldwin says they anticipated these struggles even before the start of the season, and he knows there are no easy solutions or a quick fix to what they are going through.

"And frankly, I don't think this is anything that we didn't, I won't say we expected it, but we certainly knew it was possible and maybe even probable. But you know, that's life. Nobody waves magic wands. You play with the cards you're dealt, you do the best you can, and you try to make sure that in the future, you get a better hand and you're able to play better," said Baldwin, whose team lost key players to graduation and to other teams before Season 87.

With only two games left in their schedule — one against Adamson University and the other versus the University of the East — Baldwin is confident that his squad will respond well despite being in a position where it is more possible for them to exceed their worst record ever in the Final Four era (4-10) than making the playoffs itself. 

"We're in a very difficult position which we put ourselves in throughout the season, and it didn't just happen today," he said. 

"Nobody envisaged the Ateneo Blue Eagles being where we're at right now but that's the reality. We're knocked down as a program, but I have every confidence that we will respond and we will learn from the situation that we're in and we will use it as motivation to grow in the future."

"What happens over the next two games is a lot more dependent on what every individual that's in our program right now is capable of as a competitor. Because it's not easy when you feel that your hopes and your dreams are slipping away from you."

"It really boils down to what you, as a competitor, have in the fiber of your being," he added. "We want people to think that no matter the circumstances, no matter how dim the light on the horizon is, we're going to show up, we're going to fight."

Now sitting at 3-9, Ateneo will be officially out of Final Four contention if University of Santo Tomas defeats University of the East on Saturday.

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