Brette Tanner Post-Game Press Conference
ABILENE — During a six-game losing streak that stretched from Dec. 28 through Jan. 18, ACU men's basketball head coach Brette Tanner knew two things about his team: it would never quit, and it would play tough defense.
He was right. And if the Wildcats continue to play as they have for the last three weeks, they might be serious players on the courts of Las Vegas when the Western Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament rolls around in March.
The latest example was Thursday when the Wildcats ripped off their third straight victory with a 75-59 win over Seattle at Moody Coliseum. ACU, which didn't trail last week in two road wins at Utah Tech and Southern Utah, fell behind 2-0 Thursday night before a 3-pointer by a resurgent Hunter Jack Madden 79 seconds into the game gave the Wildcats a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Their third straight win by a double-digit margin is the first time the Wildcats have won three consecutive games over conference opponents by that kind of margin since March 2021, when they beat Incarnate Word (85-60) in the regular-season finale and then took out Lamar (93-71) and Nicholls (79-45) to win the Hercules Tires Southland Conference Tournament on their way to beating Texas, 53-52, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
While no one is predicting that kind of run, Tanner was more than pleased with the effort on display Thursday night.
"Our defensive intensity is cranked up," said Tanner, whose team is now 12-13 overall and 4-6 in the WAC. "It started a couple of weeks ago when we came home to play Tarleton State and (Texas-Arlington). I could see our defensive intensity pick up. And we carried that with us on the road — minus one game (an 83-60 loss at Cal Baptist on Jan. 3) — and brought it with us (Thursday).
"Seattle is a hard team to get turnovers against, and we got 15," he said. "I thought before the game if we could get 15, we would be in good shape. And we got 15 and scored 20 points off them, and that's the difference in the game."
Aside from a stretch late in the game where they got sloppy with the basketball, Thursday night's game might have been the best ACU has played since a 78-70 win at New Mexico State on Dec. 4. The Wildcats limited Seattle to just 37.7 percent shooting from the floor (20 of 53), including a meager 11.8 percent from 3-point range (2 of 17). Seattle power forward Matthew Moncreiffe – whom Tanner called the best power forward in the league – had 14 points in the first half but only four in the second half.
Point guard Brayden Maldonado, named the WAC Player and Newcomer of the Week for his performance in two Seattle wins last week, scored just nine points on 2 of 11 shooting, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range. The Redhawks also didn't help themselves by making just 17 of 33 free throws (51.5 percent).
On the flip side, the Wildcats hit 25 of 53 shots from the floor (47.5 percent), including 6 of 19 from 3-point range and 19 of 23 from the free throw line. Quion Williams led ACU with 16 points and seven rebounds, while Bradyn Hubbard had 12 points and five rebounds. Rich Smith scored 10 points, dished out four assists, and grabbed five rebounds, and Bettiol — who drew the defensive assignment against Moncreiffe — had eight points and nine rebounds.
ACU led 17-16 in the first half before a 9-0 run keyed by seven straight points from Hubbard gave the Wildcats a 26-16 lead. Seattle cut that advantage to 26-20 a few minutes later before ACU put the game away with an 8-0 run that gave the Wildcats a 34-20 lead with 4:18 left in the first half. ACU led 40-26 at halftime, and the lead grew to 23 points (61-38) with 8:03 left in the game. The Wildcats' second-half lead never dropped below 14 points as they controlled the game for their fourth win over Seattle in seven games.
During the skid that saw the Wildcats lose six straight and eventually eight of nine before this current streak of three straight and four of six on the positive side, Tanner said he never saw a defeated group. Instead, he saw the attributes that he believes will make this a team that can make a run over the next four weeks.
"Our guys don't quit," he said. "Even during our losing streak, our guys continued to practice and play hard. That shows the character of the guys in the locker room, and that's why I still felt good about our team. A lot of teams that aren't having success at this point in the season tend to shut it down and stop playing hard. I never worried about that with this group. We haven't had any letdowns in practice, and we go hard when we're out there on the floor.
"I just … I knew this was coming because our guys don't quit," Tanner said. "Every game will be a street fight from this point forward. But I want to go into those street fights with the guys in our locker room."
