OGDEN -- Five of Weber State's top 10 career scoring leaders were in the building on Saturday afternoon, with the school recognizing all-time top scorer Bruce Collins along with Jimmy Degraffenreid (third), Jimmie Watts (sixth) and David Johnson (ninth) at halftime.
No. 2 leading scorer Damian Lillard wasn't on the court at the half, but he was all over it the rest of the time, scoring 35 points to lead Weber State to a 93-81 victory over Northern Colorado in front of 6,966 fans at the Dee Events Center.
The junior point guard from Oakland, Calif., proved again this week he belongs in the pantheon of Wildcats greats, scoring a combined 75 points and dishing 10 assists in two games on 25-of-36 shooting (69.4 percent), including 11-for-17 from beyond the arc (64.7 percent).
Lillard's 1,712 career points is 12th in Big Sky history and trails only Collins' 2,019 at Weber State. He also remains atop the national leaderboard this season, averaging 25.5 points per game.
Junior guard Scott Bamforth added 18 points on Saturday for Weber State (18-4, 11-1 Big Sky), which is perfect at home and has won 14 in a row in Ogden going back to last year. After beating the Bears, the Wildcats have downed every school in the league at least once.
Second-year Northern Colorado coach B.J. Hill continues to be impressed by Lillard.
"He's the real deal. He's got the whole package. He can drive it and he is obviously a great shooter from deep. You always love the chance you get to play against the best guys in your league," Hill said.
"He's a tremendous kid and an even better player. He's going to be a first-round pick and someone is going to be lucky to get him in the NBA."
The Wildcats led wire-to-wire, converting 16 UNC turnovers into 25 points, counterbalancing the Bears' 39-25 advantage on the boards. Freshman guard Gelaun Wheelwright had a career-high 11 points and sophomore forward Byron Fulton added 10.
Lillard put Weber State up for good with a trey to open the game, then added a variety of scoops and dipsy-dos on improbable drives to the basket. The "MVP! MVP!" chants came out when Lillard, the 2009-10 Big Sky player of the year, capped it off with a pair of 3s in a stretch where he scored 15 points in a row for the Wildcats.
After Thursday's 40-point performance, Lillard and Rahe said they had talked Monday to clear Lillard's head from the pressures from the demands on his time and attention; judging from the results of the week, Lillard has found a Zen-like zone.
"It was never a big deal," Lillard said. "It was kind of overwhelming, everybody talking about the nation's leading scorer and NBA scouts coming. My coaches, they make it a lot easier, they don't bring stuff up about that; my teammates, they don't talk about it. We kind of just stay in the moment and keep everything about our team. That makes it a lot easier -- just focusing on the team and getting back to what I have been doing ... trying to win games."
Rahe loves Lillard's frame of mind now.
"I like it when he's clear, I'll tell you that," Rahe said.
"He's going to get himself going, he's going to get himself right. He had a tough stretch there for about a week and a half. We talked about that before Sac State and Idaho State was kind of the low point. He cleared himself up; I basically listened."
Lillard came to practice with a smile Monday, Rahe said -- he kept Wildcats fans smiling all week.
Senior forward Darin Mahoney had eight points and hauled down five rebounds to become the 25th player in Weber State history with 500 career boards.
Mahoney says Lillard's performances never surprise him anymore.
"We've seen it so many times," he said. "There was one game last year Damian hit about five 3s in a row. We were shooting foul shots and one of their big guys leaned over to me and said, 'Does he ever miss?' I was like, I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary that he was 5-for-5. If you look at his percentage, he takes good shots and hits us for a lot of assists down low when they're helping off. It's really all in the flow, it's not anything out of the ordinary."
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