Head coach Brette Tanner and the Wildcats defeated the Longwood Lancers of the Big South Conference, 74-58 at the Teague Special Events Center on Wednesday.
The Wildcats have now won nine straight since starting the season 0-2 and are undefeated at Teague, winning all 21 hosted at the temporary home for the Wildcats.
The Lancers lost to the Georgetown Hoyas 91-83 earlier in the season but the Wildcats didn’t back down from the fight. Tanner and his team held the Lancers to a 33 percent shooting performance as well as 22 turnovers, a season high for the Lancers.
“Win or lose today, what these guys have done is phenomenal,” Tanner said. “I would’ve felt terrible after all we’ve done to finish non-conference with a loss. This is the end of season one and we closed it the right way. Now we wipe the slate clean and it’s the start of season two.”
Leading in scoring for the Wildcats were senior guards Damien Daniels and Mahki Morris, both with 17. Daniels scored a season high in the victory on his 5-7 shooting. The two senior guards helped spark a 24-48 shooting night for the Wildcats, their second best shooting performance against a Div. I program.
“I feel like it’s week in and week out with the same mindset,” Morris said. “We prepare every week the same way. We just know that once we’re out there, we have to throw the first punch and most teams don’t get up from the first punch. We just have to continue to throw punches, that’s what we like to do.”
Tanner and the Wildcats defense forced the Lancers to shoot 1-10 in the final stretch of the matchup to seal the 21st win at Teague. The nine game winning streak is the longest in ACU’s Div. I era.
“To play those games we wanted to prepare ourselves for WAC play and I think we were able to do that as best we can,” Tanner said. “There’s no way to prepare yourself for the heat that’s going to come in conference play but I think we did the best we could. I’m just proud of the guys, the team, and for all the people coming to support us.”
Tanner now prepares his team for an entirely new competition after ending their non-conference schedule. Starting on Dec. 30, the Wildcats take on the reigning Western Athletic Conference regular season champions, the Utah Valley University Wolverines.
The Wolverines are 9-3 on the year with notable wins over BYU and Washington. They defeated the number 12 team in the country, the BYU Cougars 72-65 in overtime and recently defeated the Washington Huskies 68-52. Three of the first six opponents for the Wildcats in conference play are in the top 75 in the country which are Utah Valley, Grand Canyon, and New Mexico State. The Wildcats face all three teams on the road.
“They’re really good but everybody in the WAC is really good,” Tanner said. “What we see at Utah Valley is what we’re going to see every night. At the same time that’s what we do this for. We want to go out there and compete against the best and prove that we belong.”
The Wildcats take a short break for Christmas before taking on the Wolverines at 7 p.m. next Thursday at the UCCU Center in Orem, Utah and streaming live on ESPN+.
