The OLLU club basketball team is in search of its first victory of the season when they host Victoria College on Wednesday.

The team held its first home game on Nov. 7 in a loss to the Rangers from San Antonio College. The team held its own during the first half but saw its double-digit lead decline in the second half. In the end, the Saints came up short, 88-78.

“It boils down to a lack of execution,” head coach Frank Hernandez said. “We came down the court and we didn’t execute, we froze up. We just didn’t play fundamental basketball.”

According to Hernandez, despite the loss, the team will be able to use the game as a building block to becoming a better team.

“The team needs to take a good look at themselves and see what they did wrong individually and then collectively as a team. Put that together and know what’s happened. Forget about it and put it behind them. Move on to the next step,” Hernandez said. “You know that you made that mistake before, come back and don’t make that same mistake again.”

Members of the team attribute last week’s loss to a lack of energy and focus toward the end of the game, something that will be in the forefront of their minds as they prepare for their next game.

“Our game was hard to swallow,” team captain Anthony Gomez said. “For us to be up by 17 points and then to lose the lead and lose the lead at the end, it took a toll on us. We had some people step up in the game. At the same time our errors kinda took over everything and our composure at the end wasn’t where it needs to be for us to win games."

Power forward/center Derek Ezell echoes Gomez’s remarks on the game and sees the team’s ability to hold on to a lead and not get complacent as key areas for the team to work on.

“Overall, I thought we played well except the latter part of the second half,” Ezell said. “We kinda gave out, fell flat. Throughout the whole game we had the lead and that intensity. But it seems like when we go up on a lead we run out of gas. We feel that we don’t have to play as hard since we’re up. But we need to change that and start playing more aggressive from tip-off until the final whistle. Just go hard and play with heart.”

The team still has a positive outlook on the rest of the season and its goal to qualify for the playoffs. According to Gomez, it is just a matter of working out the kinks to get there.

“We need to look past this game and look at our good points and work on our mistakes to better us to be stronger in the future,” Gomez said.