The regular season is lost and it has been that way for some time as the Washington State men’s basketball team is riding a 12-game losing streak into Sunday’s matchup with California.

With little to no possibility of affecting their status as the worst team in the conference come Pac-12 tournament time, the Cougars (9-17, 1-13 Pac-12) will have a chance to send their seniors out on the right note against the Bears (18-8, 8-5), as senior forwards Junior Longrus and Brett Boese play their final game in Beasley Coliseum.

“I’m definitely going to be a Coug for life and they say if you didn’t go here then you don’t understand and I kind of understand now coming it here so I’m appreciative,” Longrus said.

Boese, a graduate of Shadle Park High School in Spokane, was equally as nostalgic when reflecting on his time in Pullman.

“There’s been some great moments just because I’ve had so many great friends, people from high school, people from Spokane that have just been in this community and I’ve gotten to grow and know,” Boese said. “This is an amazing community with great people and it’s a really fun place to play.”

In order to win their fourth-straight senior night game, the Cougars will have to figure out a Cal defense that has baffled Pac-12 foes all season. The Bears are leading the conference in both scoring defense (66.7 ppg) and opponent field goal percentage (39.2 percent).

Offensively, the Bears feature one of the more balanced attacks in the nation with five players hovering around or above a double-digit scoring average. Freshman forward Ivan Rabb fills out the most impressive stat sheet on the team, averaging 12.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.

Since he grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and graduated from the nationally prominent Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, Longrus thought it fitting his last game in Beasley would be against the Berkley-based Bears. Longrus said he has ties to several players on the team, including Rabb whom he said was “like a little brother.”

But all personal distractions aside, Longrus made it clear there would be just one thing on his mind come senior night.

“No matter who we’re playing, I want to go out and win,” Longrus said.

While there are many things the Cougars need to fix before returning to winning form, a key Head Coach Ernie Kent has pointed to most of the season is finding three – or even four – scorers. In the team’s road trip last week to Colorado and Utah, junior guard Que Johnson emerged as the extra offensive threat WSU may need to stay competitive as he led the team in scoring both games with 25 against the Buffs and 13 against the Utes.

“(We need to) be mentally tough,” Johnson said. “We’ve had three, four-minute stretches where we’re not mentally tough and that’s where teams get their big break and we have to climb back from being down 10 or 12.”

Although, when the team’s overall leading scorers in junior forward Josh Hawkinson and junior guard Ike Iroegbu combined for just seven points against Utah, it resulted in WSU suffering its worst loss since Kent arrived in Pullman, so balance is critical.

WSU will tipoff its senior night game against Cal at 5:30 p.m. Saturday night in Beasley Coliseum. ESPNU will broadcast the contest.

*This article has been updated for accuracy