With just over one month remaining in the regular season schedule, the Gustavus Men’s Basketball team remains poised to contend for a conference title despite a recent string of three heartbreaking overtime losses.

After compiling a four game winning streak, the Gusties hit a rough stretch in which they suffered three consecutive losses in overtime despite holding a lead with under two minutes to go in regulation in each of the three contests.

“These last couple of games were lost as a result of things we didn’t do well throughout the whole game,” Senior Captain Phil Wirtjes said. “We tend to put more emphasis on the plays that happen during overtime, but if we take care of things in the first half, we might not even go into overtime.”

Although the losses are all that show on the results, it is worth noting how well the three overtime victors have played lately. UW-Lacrosse’s win over Gustavus was the fourth victory of a five game winning streak, while Hamline began a three game winning streak of its own with an overtime win over the Gusties. Meanwhile, the fourth-ranked Tommies are undefeated this season.

“All three teams were quality teams. The disappointing thing is that we had the lead in each of the games,” Head Coach Mark Hanson said. “But that’s just the way the game is sometimes.”

While the sting of losing close games has hurt the team, Wirtjes is quick to note that there is a positive side to the team’s play as of late.

“I think the team has felt a wide range of emotions from the last three games,” Wirtjes said. “Obviously there is disappointment and frustration from losing three games in overtime, but there are also some positive emotions, knowing that we could have just as easily won those games.”

The Gusties played well throughout each of the three overtime games, but Hanson seemed particularly pleased with the effort put forth by his team against St. Thomas.

“As much as the outcomes were similar [in each of the three overtime games], we played much better in the St. Thomas game,” Hanson said. “We were more focused on what we had to do and didn’t have as many mental breakdowns.”

The team’s ability to stay close with five-time defending MIAC champion St. Thomas has provided the Gusties with reason to believe that they can play on the same court with just about any other team.

“It reinforces what we already knew about ourselves,” Wirtjes said. “As a team we believe that we can beat any team we play, and coming so close against St. Thomas is proof that if we play our brand of basketball we can be a top-tier team.”

While the Gusties may have suffered a minor setback in the past week, the team still has 13 games ahead to improve its position in the MIAC standings.

“It would have certainly helped our position if we had beaten St. Thomas, but we still have every intention to be battling for a conference title at the end of the season,” Hanson said. “There’s still a lot of season left, so a lot can still happen.”

Wirtjes has noticed a slight problem with the Gustie defense in recent games, but he notes that the team is working in practice to fix the fundamentals of the game.

“I think that we had some lapses on defense lately that aren’t characteristic of our team, but we’re moving in the right direction and getting those things taken care of,” Wirtjes said. “Hopefully it starts to show up on the scoreboard for us.”

Although Hanson’s squad is powered by the second-ranked scoring offense in the conference with an average of 76.6 points per game, Hanson himself is the first one to insist that the team has to play effectively on both sides to win games.

“We go into each game hoping to do the best we can on the floor,” Hanson said. “We’ve scored well enough to win more games than we have.”

The remaining schedule won’t get any easier for the Gusties, with several key matchups remaining against conference foes to decide a crowded race for the MIAC championship.

“We see these games as very important, just like every game we have,” Wirtjes said. “With each conference game we have a chance to improve our position in the standings and work towards winning a championship.”

The Gusties pride themselves on possessing an offense that has the ability to give opponents fits due to its versatility as well as an improving defensive scheme.

“We have good depth and a solid inside and outside game, which makes us difficult to guard at times,” Hanson said. “We’re becoming a better defensive team, which will make us tougher to beat.”

With no breaks in sight for Hanson’s team, the Gusties will be using every spare moment to recover and prepare for the next game at home against Carleton on Saturday, Jan. 15 at 3:00 p.m.