The sixth-seeded Wildcats improved to 14-18 on the season in an 84-78 victory over No. 7 seed Tarleton State Texans in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Las Vegas, breaking a four-game losing streak and giving ACU its first WAC tournament victory since the 2021-22 season.

In that tournament, ACU started as the sixth seed, won three games to reach the finals, and lost to New Mexico State.

“We played a really good team,” Rich Smith, senior guard from the Bronx, New York, said. “I feel like we’re gonna celebrate for a little bit, and we got to turn the page quick. That was a really good basketball team. It’s a good feeling, we want to keep this feeling. We’re not ready to go home yet.”

ACU was led in scoring by Yaniel Rivera, junior guard from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, who scored a career high 20 points with five 3-pointers. Trailing Rivera were Smith with 17 points and Bradyn Hubbard, senior forward from Tulsa, Oklahoma, with 15 points.

After the two teams combined for six turnovers within the first two minutes, ACU claimed a 5-4 lead with 15:37 in the first half and never gave it back, leading the rest of the game. The Wildcats finished the first half with a 39-25 lead.

“We talked about being loose, having some fun, and I think the guys played that way,” head coach Brette Tanner said. “I thought we did what we needed to do defensively in the first half.”

With 1:33 remaining in the game, ACU held a 10-point lead, 78-68, before Tarleton guard Kaia Isaac hit a 3-pointer. Immediately followed by a 3-point play opportunity for Tarleton guard Jordan Mizell, where he missed the free throw with a chance to cut ACU’s lead to five.

ACU went on to make its five free throws to close out the game after Tarleton began intentional fouling.

With the victory, the Wildcats advance to the quarterfinals, where they will face the No. 3 seed, the Utah Tech University Thunderbirds. In the three matchups the two teams have had this season, ACU has failed to win.

“It’s kind of good and bad with it because you pick up guys’ tendencies, you know what guys like to do, what guys don’t like to do. You get familiar with a lot of things.” Smith said. “But it’s weird too because you play everybody four times.”

Every team ACU will face in the tournament will be the fourth matchup of the season because the WAC conference schedule makes each team play each other three times.

The Wildcats most recently saw the Thunderbirds on Feb. 26 in Utah when ACU lost 85-81. The other two matchups were played in Abilene on Jan. 1 and Jan. 29, with the final scores 79-64 and 76-70, respectively. The Jan. 29 loss happened during ACU’s seven-game losing streak.

“We haven’t really figured out Utah Tech’s tendencies if you’ve seen how we played them before,” Tanner said.

ACU’s quarterfinals game is scheduled to tip off at 10:30 p.m. CT Thursday.