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SLIDESHOW: Weber State vs Colorado
OGDEN – If Monday night was any indication, it might be difficult for opposing teams to play zone defense against Weber State’s men’s basketball team this season.
The Wildcats opened the exhibition portion of their season with a 110-58 win over the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs in which they displayed a clinic on long-range shooting, especially in the first 18 minutes. WSU made its first 13 3-point attempts to gain a 30-point lead late in the first half.
“We shot good this week in practice and we were anxious to play against somebody else,” said sophomore guard Damian Lillard, who led WSU with 27 points. “We came out and I don’t know what happened. We got a lot of open shots and everybody was being unselfish so it worked out for us.”
After the Mountain Lions, who play in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at the Division II level, pulled to within 6-5 on a 3-pointer from Scott Sublousky, the Wildcats unloaded an arsenal of long-range shots. Senior Nick Hansen started the attack with back to back treys and then Lillard joined in the shooting.
During the stretch, which ended with a 3-pointer from Lillard to give the ‘Cats a 56-26 advantage with 2:19 left in the half, WSU couldn’t miss from downtown. Lillard hit six while Hansen connected on four. Kyle Bullinger also contributed with a pair of 3-pointers while Franklin Session had one.
“It’s good for those shooters to get off to a good start confidence-wise,” said WSU head coach Randy Rahe. “But the reason they got those shots was because we were really unselfish.”
WSU finished the game shooting 19-of-26 (73.1 percent) from behind the arc, and the 19 3-pointers would have beaten the school record of most in a game had Monday’s contest not been an exhibition.
“We were fortunate because that’s not going to happen every game,” said Hansen, who finished with 20 points. “We were out there working hard and executing, and we just want to get out here and work on what we’ve been working on in practice.”
The Wildcats finished with 23 assists, led by Lillard’s seven while Session and Josh Noble each had four, compared to just 11 turnovers.
“We’re always going to try to get each other shots and whoever has the hot hand, we’re going to try to get him the ball,” Hansen said.
Session and Lindsey Hughey each finished with 17 points while Bullinger had 12.
WSU also did well in one of Rahe’s primary areas of focus, outrebounding its opponents 40-29 with Steve Panos grabbing a game-high 11.
“Obviously you’ve got to be able to rebound the ball and it’s one of my concerns,” Rahe said. “I keep telling the team every day that we’re going to find out as we go if we can guard and rebound.”
WSU forced 19 turnovers, 10 of which came in the second half, while holding the Mountain Lions to 31 percent shooting from the field in the second half after the Lions shot 46 percent in the first half.
“In the first half we were making a lot of shots, that’s why we had a big lead, I didn’t think we played defense as good as we should have,” said Lillard, who shot 8-for-8 from the field. “In the second half we came out and (the coaches) made it a big emphasis so we D’d up.”
The Wildcats play their final exhibition game of the season on Saturday at home against Colorado Christian before opening the season on Nov. 13 against Utah State.
