A POOR shooting day haunted the Ateneo Lady Eagles as they fell against the defending champions, Far Eastern University Lady Tamaraws, 46-33 at the FEU Gym on July 29.

Making only nine of their 47 field goal attempts, for a 19% shooting the whole game, the Lady Eagles struggled to score from the opening tip as FEU raced to a 3-15 first quarter lead.

The Lady Tamaraws never looked back as they scored on jumpers and put backs from second chance opportunities due to the Lady Eagles’ inability to secure the rebounds. Although Ateneo closed the gap to seven at halftime, 14-21, offensive and rebounding woes continued to plague them the whole game.

Junior Sarah Mercado was the lone bright spot offensively, scoring her 21 points on hard-earned drives and foul shots to carry the team throughout the game.

Captain Treena Limgenco, who suffered a bad fall on her right ankle, managed to return to the game to score three points and grab three rebounds.

She said, “We played bad. Period. We weren’t able to box out, we weren’t able to execute, [and] we allowed [FEU’s] Allana Lim to score 22 points.”

“[We] hope this serves as a reality check for the team–that we can’t get away without boxing out,” she added.

The Lady Eagles’ next game will be against powerhouse Adamson Lady Falcons on August 2, Sunday, 9 am at the FEU Gym .