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Weber State basketball: Wildcats put away Idaho 67-53 on senior night

By Brett Hein - Standard-Examiner | Feb 25, 2023
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Weber State guard KJ Cunningham (3) drives past Idaho's Divant'e Moffitt (13) on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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Weber State center Alex Tew dunks against Idaho on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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Weber State forward Dillon Jones, center, drives past Idaho's Trey Smith (44) on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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Weber State guard Steven Verplancken Jr. (11) shoots against Idaho on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

OGDEN — Weber State men’s basketball opened its home finale Saturday night doing just about everything right.

The Wildcats forced seven turnovers in the first half, committed just two, created scores of open shots and generally seemed to be dictating the game. The problem was that those shots weren’t going in.

In the second half, they went in.

Dillon Jones asserted himself, the Wildcats continued suppressing the Vandals’ offense and WSU sent Zahir Porter and Junior Ballard to a 67-53 victory in front of 6,039 fans on senior night.

With one game left in the regular season (Monday at Northern Arizona), the win locked Weber State (16-14, 11-6 Big Sky) into a third-place finish. The Wildcats will open the Big Sky Tournament at 8 p.m. Monday, March 6, against the yet-to-be-determined No. 6 seed.

“Really good effort tonight by our team,” WSU head coach Eric Duft. “We had a chance to finish third and I think that’s a good accomplishment for our team. We had a lot of new guys that came in, we wanted to get third place wrapped up, we wanted to do it at home … in front of our fans.”

With a 28-24 lead, Jones sparked a 13-2 run out of halftime with an and-one drive, grabbed his 10th rebound and went coast to coast for a bucket and, after a KJ Cunningham drive and two-handed dunk, Jones got to the rim again for a score. Suddenly, WSU was up 41-26.

Jones finished with 21 points, 14 rebounds and four assists.

“He sees the game really fast when he has the ball in his hands in the middle of the court,” Duft said. “He’s just growing and developing, and he’s a guy who can go get you a basket when you need it … he just keeps expanding his game.”

Other shots went in, too. WSU made three 3-pointers in the first half, the final a Dyson Koehler make with 9:35 left in the frame.

Weber State’s next 3-pointer didn’t come until there was 11:15 left in the game. Ballard confidently knocked down a triple from the right wing and just like that, the lid was lifted.

WSU made triples on three straight possessions when Steven Verplancken Jr. and Jones followed Ballard’s make. Verplancken made two more and Ballard capped the flurry with a high-archer from the left wing. In the space of 7 minutes, the Wildcats made 6 of 8 from downtown and led 63-42 at the final media timeout — a thorough 35-18 dismantling of the visiting Vandals to that point in the half.

Verplancken finished with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting from behind the arc, as WSU boosted a cold start to a modest 9-of-23 finish from the 3-point line. Cunningham and Ballard each scored eight points, Alex Tew totaled six points and six rebounds, and Koehler’s two triples in the first half gave him six points.

Isaac Jones was his usual force for Idaho (10-20, 4-13). The big man finished with 17 points and seven rebounds and — despite entering the game 4 of 15 from beyond the arc this season — shot 2 of 2 from downtown.

But his effectiveness was limited by foul trouble and not supplemented by anyone else. Usual high-scorer Divant’e Moffitt had six points on 1-of-9 shooting and the Vandals, who usually score enough to make most games interesting, did not find that success Saturday.

“Coaches spend hours upon hours getting us ready for scout, getting us ready for whatever we may need, and our only job is to buy in,” Ballard said about his team’s defense. “When we continue to do that, as we’ve done throughout the year … just continue to guard and we’ll continue to win.”

Elsewhere around the Big Sky, Idaho State pulled off an upset over Eastern Washington to end the Eagles’ 18-game win streak and notch their first conference loss. That means Weber State retains the only two undefeated runs through league play in conference history (1969, 2003).

Montana edged Sacramento State to clinch fourth place. Seeds 5-12 are yet to be determined, with a high likelihood that Saturday’s weather-postponed game between Montana and Portland State will have to be played Wednesday after the rest of the league wraps up the schedule Monday.

IDAHO 77, WEBER STATE 52

Idaho (13-15, 9-8 Big Sky) got 29 points from star Beyonce Bea and, quarter by quarter, put away Weber State women’s basketball on Saturday night.

With Daryn Hickok sidelined, Laura Taylor led Weber State (6-23, 2-15) with 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Charlotte Hegvold added 13 points off the bench, shooting 5 of 10. Outside of those two, who were a combined 9 of 18 from the field, the rest of the Wildcats combined shot 10 of 43. Jadyn Matthews added seven points and 10 rebounds.

WSU finishes the regular season by hosting Northern Arizona (18-12, 12-5), who is playing with a chance to win the regular-season title, at 6 p.m. Monday in Ogden.

Last-place Weber State is already locked into its Big Sky Tournament placement. The No. 10 Wildcats will play No. 9 Northern Colorado to open play in Boise at noon Saturday, March 4.

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