The men’s basketball losing streak has now extended to five in a row after the Wildcats lost to the Southern Utah University Thunderbirds 79-76 on Saturday, putting the season record at 10-11 and the conference record at 2-6.

Despite ACU leading for 33 minutes, which included the entire first half and most of the second half, the Thunderbirds took the lead with 12 minutes remaining in the game. Southern Utah’s second-half offensive attack was led by freshman guard, Elijah Duval, who finished the game with 27 points while shooting 11-13 from the field.

Head coach Brette Tanner said he thought his team played inspired on Saturday, even with the loss.

With its fifth straight loss, the team is one loss away from tying the longest losing streak during Tanner’s time as head coach. The two longest losing streaks Tanner’s teams have experienced were last season, when the team lost six in a row, and the 2021-22 season, when the team lost five in a row.

“We’ve had a tough couple of weeks,” Tanner said. “It’s different than in the past when we’ve had little sections of the season where we’ve struggled.”

In previous seasons, Tanner’s teams have been able to make runs and go on winning streaks in February. Since his first season as head coach, Tanner is 17-10 in February, with 10 of those wins coming in the last two seasons.

Tanner said those winning streaks in February happened for different reasons, including offensive tweaks and personnel changes. This year, he said he needs to work on playing guys at certain times in games and good matchups. He also said the team needs to get back to what it was doing at the beginning of conference play, when it started 2-1.

It is now approaching a month since the Wildcats last won a game, with the team’s last win coming on Jan. 8 against Tarleton State.

The path to getting a win over the next two games will require them to face the two teams atop the Western Athletic Conference standings, Utah Valley University and California Baptist University. ACU is currently sixth in the standings, one spot above Tarleton State.

UVU will be first up on the schedule when ACU faces them on Thursday. Last time the two teams met was on Jan. 3 in Moody Coliseum when the Wildcats won 85-68, led by a 22-point double-double from Bradyn Hubbard, senior forward from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In this game, the Wildcats shot 15-30 from the field and 2-8 from three-point range. Tanner said this was one of the reasons his team won the game.

“We got to have a great week of practice,” he said. “We got to put the past in the past and not worry about it and strictly look at that game only.”