The WSU men’s basketball team dropped another home game to the University of New Orleans in a 70-54 defeat on Saturday.

The loss marked the fourth of the season for the Cougars and their second home loss in a span of six days.

“I just thought at the start of the game, if the ball doesn’t go down it seems like it determines what type of energy we play with,” Head Coach Ernie Kent said in an interview with WSU Athletic Communications. “I just didn’t feel like we had a sense of urgency or energy.”

In their previous game, the Cougars beat Utah Valley University 83-76 and the team sits with an overall record of 3-4. Kent said that the team needs some quality practice time in order to get its toughness back.

Because of the Cougars’ less-than-stellar non-conference record and uninspiring play, attendance at games has been low, but Kent said that it is not affecting the team’s play.

“I just can’t blame it on the crowd,” Kent said. “When you have an opportunity to close out or block out or get on the floor for the loose ball, that has nothing to do with the crowd. That has nothing to do with people in an arena. That has something to do with something that is in your heart and your passion and your energy level.”

Senior guard Ike Iroegbu echoed Kent’s sentiment on the team’s energy level. Iroegbu said the team knows it has the right pieces to score and defend, but when the energy is not there, everything goes out the window.

For UNO, the win upped its winning streak to three games. The Privateers defeated Tulane University and Florida College by scores of 74-59 and 90-63, respectively, bringing their record to 4-3.

UNO Head Coach Mark Slessinger said that, despite his team’s winning streak, there are areas they still need to improve upon.

“We said early on that that trip was going to expose some cracks in our wall,” Slessinger said in an interview with UNO Athletic Communications. “There were some things that we had to fix and some things got exposed. They weren’t selfish but there were some things that we had to do a little bit better as a team in order to get what we wanted. They did that off of that trip and I’m proud of them.”

Slessinger said WSU is a team that performs well when it plays in rhythm. Slessinger said his game plan to attack WSU’s offense was to mix up the team’s defensive formations. This masked their lack of height and prevented the Cougars from getting into an offensive rhythm.

WSU hosts the University of Idaho at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.