SLIDESHOW: Weber State Basketball
OGDEN -- For this field trip, the Wildcats get straight A's.
Fueled by a school-record crowd of 4,540 fans, the Weber State University women's basketball suffocated in-state rival Southern Utah at the Dee Events Center, thumping the Thunderbirds 78-41 to improve to 2-1 on the young season.
"Defense has been our focus all year; we never worry about our offense," said senior shooting guard Sarah Conner, who splashed in 22 points -- including six 3-pointers -- in just 23 minutes of court time.
"Everyone on our team can score the basketball, but it comes down to what we can do defensively. We played with a good sense of urgency against the ball.
"If we come down and get into our offense, someone will eventually get hot. We just need to stay patient and not get down on ourselves when shots aren't falling."
Playing in front of more than 4,000 area youth as part of Weber State's annual Field Trip Day promotion proved inspiring to the home-court Wildcats, who shook off a cold start to score 76 points in the final 32 minutes of play.
WSU missed its first 10 shots and had just three free throws on the scoreboard through the opening eight minutes, but a tremendous defensive effort kept Southern Utah from gaining any advantage.
Weber State forced 11 first-half turnovers and the Wildcats held the Thunderbirds to just 10-of-48 shooting (20.8 percent) from the field.
"I don't think people understand the amount of energy that is generated by that many fans in the stands," Weber State coach Carla Taylor said. "This is our one game on our home court that we get to play with 4,500 fans. When you have a great crowd, it just creates so much energy for your team. This crowd really helped us today."
Junior forward Caitlin Anderson added 16 points and seven rebounds for Weber State, while senior point guard Tonya Schnibbe added 10 points and 10 assists for the Wildcats, whose 41 points allowed was the fewest since holding Idaho State to just 40 on Feb. 24, 2005.
"I thought that the effort and the tenacity on the defensive end set the tone for the game," Taylor said. "I feel like the players really bought in and played hard five against the ball. From there, our defense became our best offense.
"When you can get transition baskets off your defense, you tend to get easier baskets. We started to get easy shots with people in the flow of the offense and that was nice. The shots we got were from our fast break, into our secondary break, and then things start to feel easy."
Weber State led 33-19 at halftime, and then turned on the afterburners in the second half on the strength of nine 3-pointers, storming out to a 42-point lead before cruising to the finish line.
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