SLIDESHOW: Weber State vs University of Utah
OGDEN -- Don't expect Randy Rahe to start drawing up plays that end with Darin Mahoney shooting a 3-pointer, but the sophomore's shot from behind the arc on Wednesday proved to be a vital for Weber State.
The Wildcats ended an eight-game losing streak to instate rival Utah with an 83-76 win at the Dee Events Center.
"Winning a game that nobody expected us to win is real big, and it gets us going into a positive direction," said WSU point guard Damian Lillard.
Lillard led WSU (2-4), which plays at Sacramento State on Saturday to open Big Sky Conference play, with a career-high 28 points and hit a key 3-pointer that ended a 9-0 run to give WSU a 74-69 lead with 2:14 left to play. However, Mahoney's career-first 3-pointer was the one the Wildcats wanted to talk about following their win.
Mahoney banked in the trey at the halftime buzzer to cut Utah's (3-4) lead to 41-38, and gave WSU momentum for the second half.
"It was just kind of a broken play," Mahoney said. "The clock was low, I saw right before Damian passed it to me that there was 2 left on the clock so I really just threw it up and obviously got lucky with it, but I was happy we could go in down three rather than six."
But while Mahoney, who was 0-4 in his career from 3-point range, claims it was luck, his teammates are ready to give him credit.
"I knew it was going in," Lillard said. "It looked long, but it was from the side so I figured it was going in off the glass."
Lillard also knew he had a job to do. Although he missed his first five 3-point attempts, Lillard didn't hesitate as he stopped and popped from behind the line to hit his key 3-pointer.
"Shooter's got to shoot," said Lillard, who had seven assists and just one turnover. "I always feel like my next shot is going to go in. I've got to make shots, and I didn't have any doubt in my mind that it was going in."
Steve Panos added 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds for WSU, which didn't commit a turnover in the second half.
"That was probably the key of the whole game," said WSU head coach Randy Rahe. "To not turn it over against this kind of team, and the way that we were trying to run the ball, was really important. We got more shots and we needed to get more shots."
Kim Tillie led Utah with 20 points while Carlon Brown had 16.
David Foster had a school-record 10 blocks for the Utes, but was in foul trouble often and played just 22 minutes. Rahe challenged the Wildcats to go after Foster, and that's what they did even though the 7-foot-3 shot-blocker knocked away multiple shots by WSU on several occasions during the same offensive possession,
"He's a load, he's a big guy," Panos said. "We just kept attacking and we felt if we could get in there and get him up in the air then we could get him in foul trouble."
Foster, who finished with just two points and two rebounds, wasn't the only obstacle the Wildcats had to overcome to get the win.
Utah opened the game on a 9-0 run thanks to a 3-pointer from Kim Tillie and then two more 3s from Marshall Henderson. Although the Wildcats made a few runs of their own to keep the game close at times, Brown built Utah's lead to 28-14 on a three-point play with 7:32 left in the first half.
It wasn't until almost seven minutes into the second half when the Wildcats took their first lead. Lillard's finger-roll capped a 9-2 run and gave the Wildcats a 53-51 advantage with 13:35 to play.
WSU retook the lead for good when Panos hit a jumper with 2:44 left in the game to give the Wildcats a 71-69 lead.
Lillard hit six free-throws in the final 28 seconds to seal the win.
"We just came out and fought them," Lillard said. "Everybody thought they were big and they were just going to come in and bully us, but we didn't let them bully us. We fought back and came out on top."
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