Weber State men’s basketball picked up a crucial win Monday, defeating Southern Utah 92-84 to move to 7-1 in Big Sky play.

That knocked SUU down to 5-2, but it’s also just the first game in an unusual, demanding week for the Wildcats. That game in Cedar City tipped off a stretch of four games over eight days in four different cities, an NBA-like sequence brought on by a COVID-19-postponed game earlier this month.

So next, Weber State (14-5, 7-1 Big Sky) must win again Thursday to retain sole claim to first place in the Big Sky by traveling to Greeley, Colorado, to take on Northern Colorado (10-8, 5-1 Big Sky).

Saturday, they fly to the coast to play at Sacramento State (5-10, 1-7) before returning to Ogden to face Eastern Washington (11-8, 5-3) on Monday.

Before hitting the road, sophomore guard Seikou Sisoho Jawara said last week that the team will try to play like each game is the biggest.

“Last year at the end of the year, we were looking back and, Portland State and Southern Utah, those two games cost us the championship,” he said. “All games are important … we’ve been waiting for it for a long time.”

First is Northern Colorado at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Bears are a team that appears to be similarly hot-or-cold as it was last season but with a higher offensive ceiling due to elite shooting.

The good is really good: the Bears are 20th nationally in effective field goal percentage against Division I opponents, shoot 37% from the 3-point line as a team, and don’t turn the ball over much. Daylen Kountz averages 19.5 points per game on 51% shooting, including 42.4% from the 3-point line.

Newcomer Dru Kuxhausen shoots 43.2% from downtown, Dalton Knecht 37.7%, and Matt Johnson is at a 36.3% 3-point clip. Senior shooting forward Bodie Hume is at a career-low 32% but has proven capable of singeing the net over his career.

One can imagine with that kind of shooting, Northern Colorado takes 46.5% of all its field-goal attempts from the 3-point line, 22nd most in the country. Kountz is the biggest handful, with an ability to drive and score at all three levels.

WSU may try to stay home on shooters as much as possible, like it did in its one game against the Bears last season, a 60-59 win in which the Wildcats gave up 15 points and 15 rebounds to big man Kur Jongkuch, but held Kountz to 14 points and the Bears to 9 of 29 from the 3-point line.

Northern Colorado still has a bit of a bad streak to it. Scattered in its tough nonconference slate and some impressive conference wins (home wins over Montana State and Montana, a road win at Southern Utah) are a couple baffling results.

In a season-opening tournament in Hawaii, the Bears defeated Pacific and Hawaii, the latter a solid team, before losing 87-79 to Division II Hawaii-Hilo. And a week after beating SUU on the road, with a normal, even favorable rest schedule, Northern Colorado got busted at home by a struggling Sacramento State team 85-71.

In that loss to Sac State, the Bears couldn’t stop wing Bryce Fowler (30 points) and guard Zach Chappell (24), and shot 5 of 25 from deep. They shot 6 of 30 from behind the arc in the loss to Hawaii-Hilo.

For Weber State, it may come down to denying the right guys the best looks and applying pressure with the ball in a place WSU has found difficult to play — the Wildcats are 14-1 all-time at home against NoCo, but 7-7 in Greeley.

WSU WOMEN SEEK WIN

Weber State women’s basketball (7-11, 3-6 Big Sky) looks to end a tough, five-game losing streak by hosting Northern Colorado (5-9, 1-5) at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Dee Events Center.

Aside from being hammered at Idaho, WSU has lost by one to Idaho State (on a last-second 3), by four at Eastern Washington, by six again at Idaho State, and most recently in overtime against Southern Utah on Monday during the skid.

SUU hit a 3-pointer with six seconds left to send Monday’s game to OT at 66-66, and SUU pulled away for an 85-75 win. Northern Colorado presents a good opportunity to end the streak before WSU hosts an improved Sacramento State (8-9, 4-4) at noon Saturday.

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