Daily Skiff

The Horned Frogs never led in Saturday night's 69-52 conference loss against the University of New Mexico Lobos.

The team came into the game in first place in the Mountain West Conference, but is now left wondering how to correct the mistakes that led to New Mexico's convincing win.

"This is a team that's been very, very hot, and we come in here and I thought, for forty minutes, did a lot of good things against them," said New Mexico head coach Steve Alford.

With the loss, the Horned Frogs record now stands at 13-7, with a 4-2 mark in conference play.

The game was a struggle for the Horned Frogs from the very get go.

Problems on both offense and defense plagued the team early in the first half. The Lobos (12-8, 3-2 MWC) jumped out to a quick 10-point lead nearly 10 minutes into the game after connecting on seven of their first nine shots from the field.

"I give New Mexico all the credit," TCU head coach Jim Christian said after the game. "They came in, they beat us to every loose ball in the first ten minutes of the game…we just did not play hard or well all night."

The Lobos cooled off as the first half progressed, but still hit 12 of 25 shots, including four out of five behind the three-point line.

By comparison, the Horned Frogs, who's halftime deficit of 30-21 was as close as the game would be throughout it's remainder, connected on only eight of 21 first half shot attempts. The team shot poorly from behind the arc as well, connecting on just one of 11 shots by game's end.

The Lobos went on to shoot 70.6 percent in the second half and led by as many as twenty points late in the game.

The absence of freshman guard Ronnie Moss had a noticeable effect on the Horned Frogs' offense. Turnovers, fouls and general poor play throughout the game gave the team little chance to regain control from the Lobos.

Moss, who missed the game because of a violation of team policy, ranks fourth on the team in scoring and is second in assists.

"We need every single player to contribute to be good and not having him hurt," Christian said.

Junior forward Edvinas Ruzgas, the hero of Wednesday night's overtime win against the University of Wyoming, was held without a shot in the first half and finished the game with only four points in 32 minutes of play.

Senior forward Kevin Langford was the lone bright spot for the Horned Frogs, putting together another solid offensive performance. He led all players with 21 points after coming off a career-high 36-point effort against Wyoming.

The Horned Frogs will now hit the road to take on conference opponent San Diego State University on Wednesday.

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