The WSU men’s basketball team made history on Saturday.

The Cougars (9-14, 1-10 Pac-12) fell at home to Arizona State (13-11, 3-8) by a score of 67-55 which marks as the ninth-straight loss for WSU. This ties a nine-game losing streak WSU set back in 2012-2013.

“The exhausting part happens on gamedays when you work so hard throughout the course of the week or weeks and you get no reward for it,” WSU Head Coach Ernie Kent said. “That’s the exhausting part for them and for us.”

The Cougars were in a tough situation from start as their leading scorer junior forward Josh Hawkinson did not suit up for the contest due to a swollen ankle he injured on Thursday against Arizona.

However, WSU redshirt junior center Valentine Izundu did return to the court after missing the last eight games with a foot injury. Izundu did make up for the absence of Hawkinson by chipping in 10 points. The 6-foot, 10-inch center also grabbed seven rebounds and blocked three shots.

“It was hard watching when I was hurt,” Izundu said. “But it was good to get back in the game.”

The Sun Devils took control of the game early on by shooting efficiently from behind the 3-point line. The Cougars held a 16-15 lead in first 10 minutes of the game, but ASU took the lead after hitting three consecutive 3-pointers. The Sun Devils hit 7 of 11 3-pointers in the first half.

The last 3-pointer ASU made in the first half came when junior guard Obinna Oleka hit a half-court buzzer beater which put ASU up 40-32 at halftime.

“We just let them get loose and get open,” WSU junior guard Charles Callison said. “We didn’t have good defensive position, or a hand up on them.”

Callison finished as the Cougars’ leading scorer with 15 points on 6 of 14 shooting from the field. The California native was the most aggressive player for the Cougars on the floor in the loss to ASU.

“It sure was nice to have another scorer on the floor,” Kent said. “His game, Valentine’s game. We can get healthy again, there’s some good things brewing if we can get everybody back at the same time.”

WSU has not lost 10 straight games since 2002. The Cougars will hope to end its losing streak next week when they play the midwest schools of the Pac-12 conference. WSU will play at Colorado (17-7, 6-5 Pac-12) on Thursday at 7 p.m.

“We also know we need to get tougher, we need to learn how to win, but you’ve also got to look at where we started at,” Kent said. “We’ve been on the job here less than two years and we’re moving the program forward. We feel like we’ve got a lot accomplished, but we’ve got a lot more we need to get done and we’re well aware of that.”