By james art 
Abilene-over time of a losing series of six games, which extended from December 28 to January 18, the chief Basketball coach for ACU men Brett Taner He knew two things about his team: he would never give up and play difficult protection.
He was right. And if Wildcats continue to play as in the last three weeks, they may be serious players in Las Vegas’s courts when the seson rotates in a Western athletic conference in March.
The last example was on Thursday when Wildcats torn his third direct victory with a 75-59 victory over Seattle in Moody Coliseum. ACU, which did not fail last week in two road victories in Utah Tech and Southern Utah, lagged behind 2-0 on Thursday night before a 3-chap Hunter Jack Madden 79 seconds in the game gave a lead to Wildcats that will not give up.
Their third right victory with a double-digit margin is the first time Wildcats won three consecutive matches over the conference opponents with this type of margin since March 2021, when they beat the incarnate word (85-60) at the regular season and then pulled out Lamar (93-71) and Nicolls (79-45) to win the Hercules Tire Conference Tournament on Soutland on the way to win the Texas, 53-52, in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Until no one predicts this type of running, Taner was more than pleased with the efforts that appear on Thursday night.
“Our defensive intensity is strewn,” said Tanner, whose team is already 12-13 as a whole and 4-6 in WAC. “This began a few weeks ago when we came home to play on Tarleton State and (Texas-Arlington). I saw the recruitment of our defense intensity. And we carried it with us on the road-minus one game (83-60 loss in Kal Baptist of January 3) – and brought it with us (Thursday).
“Seattle is a difficult team to get a turnover and we got 15,” he said. “I thought before the match, if we could get 15, we would be in good shape. And we got 15 and we scored 20 points from them and that is the difference in the game.”
In addition to stretching at the end of the game, where they became a basketball slot, the Thursday night game may have been the best ACU after winning 78-70 in New Mexico on December 4th. Wildcats limited Seattle to only 37.7 percent of the floor shooting (20 out of 53), including a sparse 11.8 percent of 3-point range (2 out of 17). Seattle Power striker Matthew Moncreff – whom Taner called the best power in the league – had 14 points in the first half, but only four in the second half.
Brade Maldonado’s point guard, appointed the WAC player and a newcomer to his performance week in two wins in Seattle last week, scored only nine points in 2 of 11 firing, including 1 out of 6 of the 3-point scope. Redhawks also did not help themselves, making only 17 of 33 free throws (51.5 percent).
On the reverse, Wildcats struck 25 of the 53 shots from the floor (47.5 percent), including 6 out of 19 of the 3-point range and 19 out of 23 of the free throw line. Quion Williams LED ACU with 16 points and seven rebounds while Bradyn Hubbard There were 12 points and five fights. Rich Smith He scored 10 points, rejected four assists and grabbed five rebounds, and Betion – who attracted the defense task against Montcreff – had eight points and nine rebounds.
ACU led 17-16 in the first half before 9-0 was completed by seven straight points from Hubard gave a lead to Wildcats 26-16. Seattle reduced this advantage to 26-20 minutes later before ACU left the game with 8-0, which gave the Wildcats 34-20 lead with 4:18 in the first half. ACU led 40-26 at halftime, and the lead increased to 23 points (61-38) by 8:03 remaining in the game. The second half of Wildcats never fell below 14 points as they controlled the game for their fourth victory over Seattle in seven games.
During the sliding, which saw that Wildcats were losing six straight, and in the end eight out of nine before the current series of three straight and four of six on the positive side, Tanner said he had never seen a defeated group. Instead, he saw the attributes that he believes would turn this team that could mileage in the next four weeks.
“Our boys don’t give up,” he said. “Even during our losing series, our boys continued to train and play hard. This shows the character of the boys in the dressing room and therefore I still felt good in our team. Many teams that are unsuccessful at that moment in the season are inclined to close him and stop playing hard.
“Just … I knew it was coming because our boys don’t give up,” Tanner said. “Every game will be a street battle from that moment on. But I want to get into those street battles with the boys in our dressing room.”