University of Santo Tomas (UST) has been reduced from predator to prey after suffering three straight losses in Season 88 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament.

And for veteran Forthsky Padrigao, there’s nobody to blame but themselves.

Padrigao said they have to give their 100 percent in their last five games of eliminations, especially now that the race for Final Four spots is starting to heat up.

With a powerhouse core bannered by Cameroonian Collins Akowe, Nic Cabañero, Kyle Paranada and Padrigao, the Tigers opened the season on a red-hot note as they won five of their first six matches.

But things suddenly took a heartbreaking turn in their final game of the first round when they suffered a heartbreaking setback to Adamson University followed by another loss to De La Salle University. As if that wasn’t enough, the Soaring Falcons beat them anew with a painful 98-89 come-from-behind overtime victory last Wednesday.

With that, the once-feared Growling Tigers suddenly found themselves fighting for a Final Four spot with a 5-4 win-loss mark, putting tremendous pressure on their shoulders as they enter the final stretch of the double-round eliminations.

Padrigao said they can no longer afford to take it easy.

“We just need to stick together. We have five more games, we have to learn about the things that we need to learn about, and move on,” said Padrigao, whose team will tackle another dangerous foe in surging University of the Philippines on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

“We have to show our eagerness. We have to give our 100 percent every game. It’s all about us; watching films, taking into account what our mistakes were and learn from it.”

Against Adamson, UST played sloppy in the final stretch.

Despite holding an eight-point lead, 88-80, with only 32.2 seconds left in regulation, the Tigers struggled at the charity stripe with Padrigao and Cabañero missing five of their six free throws to give the Falcons a chance to flip the script.

Then, Ray Allen Torres nailed his charities before Matthew Montebon delivered a pair of booming three-pointers to force an overtime, where they clobbered the demoralized Tigers.

Padrigao, however, stressed that they can dwell too much on that setback.

“We can’t stay too low,” he said, vowing to bounce back and deliver a better performance in their next five matches against UP, Far Eastern University, University of the East, Ateneo de Manila University and National University.

“We have to stay grounded and move on. After all, we still have five more games to take care of.”