The Wildcats defeated the Seattle University Redhawks 75-59 to win their third straight game, improving their record to 12-13 on the season and 4-6 in Western Athletic Conference play.

With the win, ACU has now won four of its last six games and is sixth in the WAC standings.

ACU’s leading scorer was Quion Williams, junior guard from Jonesboro, Arkansas, with 16 points. The game comes after Williams played only three minutes due to suffering an injury in the team’s last game against Southern Utah.

The win was backed by an impressive defensive performance from the Wildcats. 13 steals and 15 forced turnovers that led to 20 points for ACU and 36 rebounds. ACU held a key player for Seattle, Brayden Maldonado, to nine points and 2-11 from the field. Maldonado came into the game averaging 22 points in his last two games.

“I think when you speed guards like that up and you make them put the ball on the deck and they’re thinking twice about ‘Do I shoot it? Do I put it on the deck?’ and I think he [Maldonado] was playing fast,” Head Coach Brette Tanner said.

SU came into the game as the top defensive team in the WAC with opponents averaging 60.4 points against them. The Wildcats scored 75 against them while shooting 25-53 from the field.

With six games left in the regular season, the team is getting hot at the right time. Last season the team won seven straight games near the end of the season.

Tanner said that to keep his team’s momentum going he must keep their confidence up.

“We’ve played a little quicker these last three games and that’s to their credit,” he said. “I told them if you’ll play defense the way I want you to, if you’ll get stops then you can go [score].”

ACU will have a week off before playing its next two games at home. Then the team will make its final road trip of the season to play Tarleton State University and University of Texas-Arlington. After this, the Wildcats will play their final two games of the season at home.