OGDEN -- Damian Lillard waited until the final seconds of the Purple and White scrimmage to show Wildcats fans what they've been waiting for since last December.
With 9.6 seconds to go, the 2009-10 Big Sky MVP slashed down the lane to throw down a slam dunk, drawing the loudest cheer of the night from several hundred fans Wednesday at the Dee Events Center.
"I've been waiting to get back out there and play," the junior guard from Oakland, Calif., said. "I just wanted to get out there and get in a flow playing in front of a crowd, getting in a game situation with my teammates. That was the main thing I've been waiting for and it felt good to get back out there."
Lillard, who had 14 points in Wednesday's scrimmage, said he's completely healed from the Jones fracture he suffered in a non-conference game at Tulsa that sidelined him for most of last season.
"It's been feeling great since mid-summer when I got it back 100 percent," he said. "I've been fine. It's not a problem for me right now."
In Lillard's absence, Bamforth and forward Kyle Bullinger earned first-team all-Big Sky honors and led the Wildcats to a third-place finish in conference play. Bamforth earned the Big Sky newcomer of the year honor as well, despite playing through a shoulder injury last season and having surgery after the season.
"It felt good to get back out there and play. A lot better than I felt last year with pain, so that's good," Bamforth said. "It's a step in the right direction, so hopefully it stays that way the whole season."
With the Wildcats shuffling players between the Purple and White squads and changing scores to present different game situations, Wednesday's game scores didn't matter, but officially White beat Purple 25-14 in the first 10-minute period and won again, 30-21, in the second half. As a team, the Wildcats shot 56.9 percent from the field.
Bamforth scored 10 points as his White squad won the first 10-minute period and finished with a team-high 20 points and hit 3-of-6 from deep. Bullinger had seven points and seven rebounds.
Sixth-year Weber State coach Randy Rahe wanted to see different rotations in action in front of fans to evaluate his squad.
"The first time you do that, it has an affect on the guys. It can slow you down, you can lose sight of your focus on what's important. A little of that happened early and then I thought we settled in and played a little better," Rahe said.
"I'm just trying to play different lineups and see how guys react with other guys. We're trying to give everybody a look right now, give everybody an even shot, a fair shot. We look at different lineups, switch guys around at different positions and see how they look so we can evaluate them on film. That will give us a better understanding of where guys are and how we can better help them out."
Weber State fans got their first look at a trio of freshmen guards: Shai Fields, a 6-4 guard/forward from Houston, Gelaun Wheelwright, a 5-11 guard from Corona, Calif., and Mike Brown, a 6-2 guard from Heber City.
Fields had nine points. No redshirt decisions have been finalized for the freshmen.
WSU fans also saw redshirt freshman forward Frank "Mook" Otis, who sat out last season after transferring from Southern Methodist University. Otis had two points and sophomore forward Byron Fulton, last season's Big Sky freshman of the year, scored six points.
The Wildcats also got a look at the future of Davion Berry, a Division II All-American at Cal State Monterey Bay, was also allowed to play in Wednesday's scrimmage though he must sit out this season due to NCAA transfer rules. Berry, who will be a junior next year, was 6-of-7 from the field, 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, and scored 16 points. With the score reset at 11-all in the final seconds, Berry pulled up from Jimmer-range and buried a 3 with 2.6 seconds on the clock.
Lillard's attempt to tie it with a long 3 at the buzzer on the other side rattled out.
Weber State lost two seniors, guard Lindsay Hughey and center Trevor Morris, from a team that finished third in the Big Sky.
The Wildcats were picked first by the media and coaches in the preseason poll.
Sophomore guard Jordan Richardson (ankle) and redshirt freshman James Hajek (bulging disk) did not participate in Wednesday's scrimmage.
The Standard-Examiner has learned Weber State's men's basketball team will participate in a closed practice scrimmage against Boise State this Saturday. The Wildcats women will play in a similar scrimmage against Oregon State this weekend.
NCAA rules prohibit coaches from commenting or releasing any information about the scrimmage, which teams are allowed to hold in place of an exhibition game.
* New Weber State women's basketball coach Bethann Ord directed the Wildcats through her first Purple and White scrimmage Wednesday.
With a shorthanded squad because of injuries, the Wildcats had nine players and had to use a male practice player to go 5-on-5. That makes it tough to evaluate the scrimmage, said Ord, a former University of Louisville assistant in her first head coaching job.
"They still went hard, they tried to execute," Ord said. "It's a process. It's going to be a process and it's not just the newcomers learning a system, it's the whole team learning a system."
Comments