Hot-shooting Weber State burns up Sacramento State to sweep 3-game road trip
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- Weber State center Dontay Bassett rises for a layup as two Sacramento State defenders look on in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, in Sacramento, Calif.
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- Weber State guard JJ Overton (24) drives to shoot against Sacramento State’s Jonathan Komagum (21) on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, in Sacramento, Calif.
Following two hard-earned, somewhat emotional victories at Southern Utah and Northern Colorado — two teams at the top of the Big Sky standings — it wasn’t unreasonable to eye Saturday’s road-trip capper at Sacramento State as somewhat of a trap game for Weber State men’s basketball.
The Hornets had battled both Montana schools to the wire and blew out Northern Colorado on the road, after all. And Saturday, they shot the ball well and won the turnover battle against the Wildcats, something that would typically not bode well for WSU.
But Saturday inside the cozy Hornets Nest, none of that mattered.
Weber State shot the lights out, ending a torrid week from behind the 3-point line, and turned in a nearly perfect rebounding effort to blow out the Hornets 79-59.
JJ Overton led Weber State (16-5, 9-1 Big Sky) with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, adding six rebounds and three blocks. Dontay Bassett and Koby McEwen scored 17 points apiece, with McEwen adding five assists. Bassett shot 6 of 7 from the floor, including 3 of 4 from the 3-point line.
Weber State shot 28 of 48 from the field Saturday night, including 12 of 22 from the 3-point line. In the week’s three wins, WSU shot 36 of 75 (48%) from behind the arc and the team has eclipsed 50% from the field in four straight games.
“Guys were making the extra pass. I thought they really did a good job of making, we call it the ‘one-more’ pass — a guy’s open and he made one more, turn down a good shot to get a great one,” WSU head coach Randy Rahe said. “The ball’s been moving well the last few games and it makes us hard to guard.”
Seikou Sisoho Jawara added 13 points and four assists, with WSU’s only two steals of the game.
Dillon Jones turned in a stellar scoreless effort, grabbing 13 rebounds and dishing four assists.
“Dillon’s starting to get some attention. He’s a really good player, he played really well and people are starting to put him at the top of our scouting report so they’re guarding him hard,” Rahe said. “But 13 boards, we’ll take that all night. He’ll get back to scoring the ball, but his game has never really been based on just scoring.”
WSU both sparked and capped a big first-half rally with 3-pointers.
Scuffling a bit offensively, WSU went into the under-12 timeout trailing 14-9. But Zahir Porter came out of the timeout to hit a deep wing 3 and McEwen followed with a triple from the corner. Then, after Porter chased down a seemingly easy Sac State transition layup for a block, Dyson Koehler canned a 3-pointer to put WSU up 18-14.
Big-man Bassett connected on three 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the half, giving him 15 points, and a 31-11 run netted his team a 40-25 halftime lead.
To that point, WSU had scrambled well on rotations and stonewalled Sacramento State (6-11, 2-8) drivers, holding the Hornets to a 7-of-21 mark on 2-pointers in the half.
Out of halftime, both teams began to score at will, especially after Bassett exited with his third foul early in the frame.
Zach Chappell, Bryce Fowler and William Fitzpatrick got loose behind the 3-point line to lead a 20-7 rally over the course of fewer than seven minutes — nearly giving the Hornets as many points as they scored in the first half — to cut the score to 50-45 with 12:45 left.
“They’ve got a culture of playing hard, they’re tough … they always compete and it never wavers,” Rahe said of Sacramento State. “I was proud of our guys … we showed some poise, made the plays we needed to, got the stops we needed to.”
Porter and Sisoho Jawara connected on 3-pointers to make it a 10-point game, though it seemed it might remain that margin forever as both teams seemed to trade baskets almost in unbroken sequence for about five minutes.
Sac State’s last gasp came when Fowler drove the lane and converted a three-point play to make it 63-55 with 7:27 left. McEwen answered with a three-point drive of his own, starting a 10-0 run that ended when Overton dunked on a backdoor feed from McEwen, and it was 73-55 with 5:45 left.
“We’ve had good poise, good composure, and it starts with Koby. A lot of other guys, too, but Koby … does a great job with that stuff and the guys really respond to him,” Rahe said.
The Hornets scored just four points in the final seven minutes and WSU coasted to the finish line.
Fowler led Sacramento State with 20 points, and Fitzpatrick netted 14 by shooting 4 of 9 from the 3-point line. Sac State finished 23 of 52 from the field and 8 of 16 from 3, and won the turnover battle 9-4.
Weber State returns home Monday to complete a stretch of four games in four cities over a period of eight days, hosting an Eastern Washington (11-10, 5-5) team that just took two tough losses on the Montana road trip, concluding with a 61-59 defeat at Montana.
WSU WOMEN BREAK SKID
After being on the wrong end of some clutch shots, it was Weber State’s turn Saturday afternoon in Ogden.
The Wildcat women entered the fourth quarter up six points against Sacramento State, but saw the Hornets get up by as much as four near the final minute.
After Emma Torbert and Kori Pentzer each went 2 of 2 from the foul line, the center Torbert brought WSU back by burying a 3-pointer from the wing with 19 seconds left. She added two more free throws after a stop and WSU won 79-76 to break a six-game losing streak.
Torbert scored a career-high 29 points for Weber State (8-12, 4-7 Big Sky), adding seven rebounds. Jadyn Matthews totaled 12 points and 12 rebounds, Daryn Hickok chipped in 11 points and six rebounds, and Pentzer scored eight points.
WSU shot 19 of 22 from the free-throw line and 4 of 7 from beyond the arc: a 3-of-6 night from Torbert, and 1 of 1 from Laura Taylor.