The men’s basketball team will look to tip its season record back over the .500 mark Wednesday against UT-Pan American following a 67-62 loss on the road to San Diego State on Saturday.

The Frogs, led by senior guard Edvinas Ruzgas who scored a team-high 16 points, started strong in the first half jumping out to a 14-point lead before taking a 38-29 advantage into halftime.

The Aztecs came out strong in the second half taking their first lead of the game at 51-49. TCU stayed within reach toward the end but the Aztecs eventually pulled away on the strength of a 6-of-6 free throw effort down the stretch.

With the loss, the Frogs fell to 9-9 on the season with a 2-2 conference record, but head coach Jim Christian kept a positive outlook Monday during the team’s workout.

“We’ve signed up for a very difficult schedule and it doesn’t let up when you get to conference play,” Christian said. “We probably have struggled to be the consistent team that we want but you don’t know when it comes together, you just have to keep working at it and I’m starting to see signs of it.”

Christian said he would like to see more focus given to not turning the ball over.

“I think we’re showing now that we can compete with everyone in the league and now we just have to do the little things for 40 minutes to give ourselves a chance to win,” Christian said.

Christian said he was reassured with the team’s outlook for the rest of the season because the team has managed to win games this season without some of its key players, like sophomore guard Ronnie Moss, playing to their potential.

Moss said improvements on the floor need to start with him.

“I have to get my team to do everything the right way and I have to be under control at all times,” Moss said. “I feel like I kind of got away from that a little bit, and this last game I tried to be a little more under control. If I’m under control then my team is going to be under control.”

Christian said for the Frogs’ match up with UT-Pan American he intends to focus more on what his team needs to work on to improve rather than game planning for the Broncs.

Moss echoed his coach’s focus.

“We just figured out at the last game against San Diego State that if we execute our plays, we’re a pretty good team,” Moss said. “We’re still trying to figure everything out right now, but we’re putting all the pieces together. We’ve got 14 more games left and we’re going to play every game hard.”

TCU v. UT-Pan American Broncs

When: Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m.

Where: Daniel-Meyer Coliseum

Admission is free for students.