Weber State men’s basketball caught BYU as it has started to find its offensive groove as more of a space-and-pace team after two centers were lost for the season. The Wildcats will now host somewhat of the opposite Thursday evening when the Fresno State Bulldogs come to Ogden.

Weber State (9-3) closes its nonconference schedule with a 4 p.m. matinee against Fresno State (9-3), who finally returns a game to Ogden in a two-for-one series that played its first two games in Fresno in 2017 and 2018.

The Bulldogs are quite pointedly led by 7-foot junior Orlando Robinson. He leads Fresno in scoring at 18.3 points per game, the only Bulldog who averages double figures; in rebounds (8.1 per game, including 2.8 offensively), assists (2.9), steals (1.3), free throws made (53 total) and attempted (66).

Robinson posted highs of 17 points and 18 rebounds against LIU, and 27 points and 10 rebounds against Idaho in consecutive games early in the season. Robinson shares a path with Weber State signee Chris Dockery as a Las Vegas native who played at post-prep Middlebrooks Academy in Los Angeles.

When Robinson isn’t on the court, he’s usually backed up by 7-foot Braxton Meah, who prepped one year each at Roy High and Layton Christian Academy before his family moved to California where he finished high school.

Fresno State rates well at everything, offensively and defensively, except its own 3-point shooting (29.4% against Division I teams), which could bring a reprieve for a WSU team recovering from two lights-out shooting performances by Utah State and BYU. Senior guard Junior Ballard missed several games to start the season but shot 8 of 14 from deep off the bench in recent games before going 2 of 8 at Utah on Tuesday. He and starting guard Anthony Holland (42.4%) are Fresno’s top shooters.

The Bulldogs have largely faced a schedule of teams that rate below what they’ll face in the Mountain West, and went 2-3 in games against its top-rated opponents (winning games against Santa Clara and UC Irvine, and losing on the road to Cal, San Francisco and Utah).

Still, Weber State will have work to do against a team that plays slow, forces opponents to play slow, guards all areas of the floor well and doesn’t put opponents on the free-throw line with much regularity.

The Wildcats are licking their wounds from double-digit losses to Washington State, Utah State and BYU, all of which rate in the top 55 of Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, far and away better than anything they’ll face in the Big Sky (Weber State’s rating of 123 is best in its league).

After losing 55-50 at Utah on Tuesday, Fresno State rates 85th in Ken Pomeroy’s ranking, posing Weber State’s best chance in the tough stretch to boost its spirits, and would give the Wildcats 10 wins heading into the resumption of conference play.

“This is a test and we’ve just got to be solid and know that this is just a part of it … we can’t put our heads down, it’s just part of the journey,” freshman forward Dillon Jones said after the loss to BYU. “We’ve just got to keep fighting, that’s all it is … I have faith in my teammates.”

JONES WINS POW AGAIN

Jones won Big Sky player of the week honors for the third time this season. He averaged 19.5 points, 11 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 70% from the field in the games against USU and BYU.

Jones is second nationally with eight double-doubles and 10th in rebounding at 10.4 boards per game.

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