ABILENE — What a difference 31 days can make.
One month ago, the ACU Wildcats were coming off a 60-54 home loss to California Baptist 60-54 to run their losing streak to six games, dropping them to 8–11 overall and 0-4 in the Western Athletic Conference.
Saturday night, the Wildcats stretched their winning streak to five straight games with an 80-72Â win over Utah Tech at Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats, who have won six of eight since that loss to Cal Baptist, are now 14-13 and 6-6. It's the first time the Wildcats have been above .500 since Dec. 31, when they were 8-7 after a loss to Stephen F. Austin, the second loss in the six-game losing streak.
They also moved from seventh place in the conference into a tie for third with Cal Baptist in the WAC standings. ACU is fourth in the league based on head-to-head with CBU (0-2). But if the Wildcats can maintain a grip on the No. 3 or No. 4 seed through the end of the regular season in two weeks, they'll head to the WAC Postseason Tournament in Las Vegas with a bye into the quarterfinals on March 13.
One month ago, that might have seemed impossible. But even during that losing streak, ACU head coach Brette Tanner was preaching that his team would not give up on the season. That it had too much grit, character, and good locker room vibes to throw the season away. They would, he said, rally.
Saturday night, the Wildcats showed the kind of grit and toughness their head coach spoke about against the Trailblazers, who entered the game at 6-20 overall and 2-9 in the WAC but who had lost at home Thursday night in overtime to league-leading Utah Valley. Tanner said he was nervous about the game all day Friday and Saturday leading up to the 6 p.m. tipoff because he knew Utah Tech was better than its record.
"(Utach Tech head coach) Jon Judkins is one of the best coaches out there, and he's such a good man," Tanner said. "And I don't care what their record is; he's got those guys playing. They've been in one-possession games almost every night out and gave us a run for our money. They will be a dangerous team in the conference tournament, and that's why I'm so happy with this win."
The Trailblazers showed that kind of effort Saturday night, rallying each time it looked like the Wildcats were poised to put the game out of reach. ACU, which never trailed and led by as many as 13 points in each half, saw its lead shaved to 71-65 with 3:51 left on a pair of free throws by Madiba Owona.
On ACU's ensuing possession, Quion Williams missed a 3-pointer. Bradyn Hubbard positioned himself perfectly for the backside offensive rebound and fed the ball to Rich Smith, who Tennessee Rainwater fouled. Smith made the second of two free throws for a 72-65 lead. Beon Riley turned the ball over on Utah Tech's possession, and Williams collected the ball. A few seconds later, he missed a layup, and Cade Hornecker missed the tip-in. But Smith was there to collect Hornecker's miss and laid the ball back in to give the Wildcats a 74-65 lead with 2:39 to play.
Those game-winning plays were missing during the six-game skid that saw the Wildcats lose three games by one or two possessions. And that doesn't include a 79-76 overtime loss at home to UT-Arlington on Jan. 25.
"We didn't make those plays a month ago," Tanner said. "We were in one-possession games during that streak and didn't make plays at the end of games (to win). I've said all year that I believe in our guys. You can usually tell when a team is done by the way it practices. I've known for a while this team wasn't done because of the approach it had each day. And the approach it continues to have.
"They were locked in for these two games (a 75-59 win Thursday night over Southern Utah preceded Saturday night's win), and I have no doubt they'll be locked in for the two road games coming up," he said. "Win or lose, I'll go battle with this team to the end just because of their approach."
Leo Bettiol led all scorers with 19 points on 8 of 13 shooting from the field, while Williams had 18 points and four rebounds while logging 35 minutes. He was 7 of 13 from the floor, grabbed four rebounds, dished out four assists, collected two steals, had one block, and put the exclamation point on the win with a thundering fast-break dunk with 11 seconds to play. It was another terrific all-around performance for the junior transfer from Oklahoma State.
Hunter Jack Madden scored 11 points, and Hubbard added nine points, eight rebounds, and two steals.
Now, the Wildcats go back on the road next week for two enormous games at Tarleton State (Thursday) and UT-Arlington (Saturday), which will impact the standings. Those teams are directly behind ACU in the WAC standings at 6-7, which means ACU can take a giant step toward a top-four seed with two road wins before closing out the regular season at home against Utah Valley (March 6) and Grand Canyon (March 8).
"Those two on the road are going to be great basketball games," Tanner said. "We've struggled at Tarleton the last couple of years, and that's a credit to them. And, then, we had a great game against UTA here last month, but came up on the short end in overtime. That might have been the best game in the WAC this season. So now we have another crack at them. If we want to creep into the top four, we know we've gotta go win a couple of road games, and that's what we'll try to get done."
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