The SMU men's basketball team enters the weekend in sole possession of fourth place in the ACC standings holding the longest active winning streak in the conference, and they'd like to keep it that way.

Tuesday's 20-point win against Pittsburgh was the fifth-straight for the Mustangs, and their eighth win in the last nine games.

"We're trying to win every game," SMU head coach Andy Enfield said. "... Just really proud of our guys. We're 5-1 on the road in the league, and that's really hard to do. We have a maturity about our team. They don't get rattled … our guys have stuck together and have improved, and that's the main goal of our team. We thought we'd be a better team in January and February than we were early in the season, and we're much better."

The Mustangs had won three-straight games before the 25-point loss to then-No. 25 Louisville. That served as a wake-up call. SMU hasn't lost since, winning five straight, including two by at least 20 points.

"I feel like all of us held each other accountable," junior guard Boopie Miller said. "We've just got to be a team and just talk to each other when another person's not doing his job. I feel like that's been working for us since after that we've been winning. I feel like that's been working."

Tuesday's win followed a similar pattern as the Mustangs were able to take an early lead and keep building it, put multiple players in double figures offensively and played high-quality defense. It's a formula that, when in action, has equaled success.

SMU had 18 assists against Pitt, moving to 9-0 when hitting that mark this season.

"We were making the extra pass. We could have had 20-something assists," Enfield said. "We missed some easy shots, especially late. Boopie should have had, probably, four or five more. He was making passes all night and guys missed layups and missed wide open 3s. But even late in the game, Chuck Harris made some great, great passes. We're at our best when we're sharing the basketball. When we take tough shots or isolations, we're just not very good offensively, we don't look very good, and (Tuesday) they really shared."

The Mustangs are also getting continued improvement from 7-foot-2, Turkish freshman Samet Yiğitoğlu. He scored in double digits for the seventh straight game and delivered his third double-double of the season.

The team is seeing that work firsthand and now everyone is seeing the result.

"I feel like he's being more aggressive," junior guard B.J. Edwards said of Yiğitoğlu. "We're getting him a lot of touches, he deserves them. And just like Boopie said, he's working out every day, after practice, before practice sometimes, so he's putting in the reps and he deserves it."

SMU never trailed in Tuesday's win. Pitt tied the game at 2-all before the Mustangs went on a 5-0 run to take a lead they would never give up. 

The lead reached 20 points in the first half as a Keon Ambrose-Hylton dunk capped off a 7-0 run, as part of a larger 21-5 stretch. SMU took a 16-point lead into halftime and answered an early Pitt 3-pointer with an 8-0 run. 

The Panthers got back within 14 points with 6:18 left in the game. SMU responded with nine-straight points to effectively put the game away.

"They cut it to 14, and then we went on that big run and kind of put the game back to 20 and from there it stayed there," Enfield said. "But it's a maturity and it's a commitment to defense, because you don't have to let the other team score or get clean looks. So when you go in those offensive ruts, or you don't score the ball for four or five possessions, you need your defense to step up and that prevents the big runs from the other team to get back in the game."

SMU will need all of that working together again on Saturday as it hosts fifth-place Wake Forest at 5 p.m. The Mustangs have taken care of business against the bottom half of the ACC, but have struggled against some of the top teams in the league.

This is their chance to turn that around.

"We're really proud of our team. The improvement to be 10-3 in the ACC, win eight out of nine right now, currently, our team is playing well," Enfield said. "But we have a lot of basketball left, starting on Saturday, against just a terrific Wake Forest team. We'll take (Wednesday) off and regroup and then get back at it and be here Saturday, hopefully, with a full house. Our crowd was great (Tuesday), but Saturday's a big game for us."

It might mean a little more to one member of the Mustangs, though. Miller spent last season with the Deacons and will try to get the better of his old program, but won't change his approach to the game.

"It's going to be fun, exciting … definitely fun," Miller said of the matchup. "Talking to Hunt (Sallis) and everybody else on the team. It's definitely going to be an exciting game for me. … I don't try to switch it up. I'm just trying to take it game by game and just take the same approach to every game and lock it with my teammates and come out with the win."