It’s rare that Weber State ever has a player ejected from a game, but Nigel Burris’s ouster with 5:25 left was impactful.

WSU didn’t miss many free throws against North Dakota, either, but Viljami Vartiainen’s miss with 1:30 remaining was crucial.

The Wildcats only turned the ball over 11 times in the road game, but a miscue with six seconds left ended the ballgame.

North Dakota beat the shorthanded Wildcats 80-75 to give Weber State an 0-2 week in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.

Photo supplied, North Dakota Athletics

Koehler sat after spraining an ankle in practice Friday. WSU head coach Eric Duft said on postgame radio that he thinks Koehler will be good to go next week and might have played in a tournament scenario but, to avoid longer-term injury, he agreed to sit out Saturday.

The way missing Koehler and eventually Burris hurt Weber State the most was on the glass. Even though Weber State shot 28 of 53 (52.8%) and was 12 of 14 from the charity stripe, North Dakota hauled down 19 offensive rebounds and outscored WSU 18-9 in second-chance points.

“Without Dyson, that was going to be a real concern,” Duft said. “Guys have to have responsibility and go get some of those tough rebounds … we outcompeted them in probably every area except for that. But if you get dominated on the glass on the road, you’re not going to win.”

WSU was also on the wrong side of a 24-15 foul disparity, giving UND (20 of 29) 15 more free-throw attempts.

Senior guard Blaise Threatt again led Weber State (4-6) in scoring, tallying 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting while adding five rebounds and three steals. Miguel Tomley pitched in 18 points and big man Vasilije Vucinic scored 14 points on 6-of-6 field goal shooting and 2 of 2 at the line, adding six rebounds.

Photo supplied, North Dakota Athletics

Weber State scored 18 of its 28 made field goals at the rim.

North Dakota (4-5) leading scorer Treysen Eaglestaff didn’t alone hurt WSU but he was one of five Fighting Hawks in double figures. Mier Panoam totaled 22 points, Eli King had 13, and Eaglestaff, Amar Kuljuhovic and George Natsvishvili each pitched in 12.

“It’s disappointing. But I thought we had a lot more buy-in to what we were trying to do tonight, our guys competed hard. We’ve just got to come up with some of those (rebounds),” Duft said. “This is what a Big Sky road game will be; they’re a good opponent, good crowd, good environment.”

After a 5-5 start, North Dakota rallied for an 18-7 lead. Weber State cut that to 36-31 at halftime and the margin floated there until the final nine minutes.

A Tomley 3-pointer cut the deficit to 56-55 with 8:47 left and a Threatt three-point play tied it 60-60 at the 7:30 mark.

Panoam scored 12 of his 22 points after that point. He helped North Dakota rebuild a 68-62 lead during the stretch that saw Burris ejected.

Duft said he didn’t see the play with 5:25 remaining and was surprised to learn Burris, who finished with eight points and seven rebounds in 28 minutes, was being sent to the locker room. Burris, officials said, hit a screen-setting North Dakota player in the groin. After review, not only was Burris issued a flagrant foul but referees determined the severity required ejection.

After one made flagrant free throw, WSU promptly gave up an offensive rebound putback on a missed UND 3-pointer.

Still, the Wildcats rallied and four Vucinic points preceded a Vartiainen 3-pointer to give Weber its first lead since 3-2, creating a 71-70 margin with 2:34 left.

Trading points, a Vucinic basket (73-72) and a steal-turned-bucket from Threatt (75-74) had WSU in the lead with 1:01 left.

A driving Panoam restored the Hawks to the lead, 76-75 with 0:47 left, for the final time.

Vartiainen missed a 3-pointer but Panoam made just one free throw on his ensuing trip with 20 seconds left.

With a chance to tie the game, a botched Threatt-to-Trevor Hennig pass saw the ball off Hennig’s foot and into the backcourt for a violation, stopping the clock with 0:06 left.

Eaglestaff made both his free throws one second later to ice the game.

Down the rest of the roster, Hennig pitched in five points and one assist in 18 minutes off the bench.

In the paint, the senior Vucinic added two assists and one block, tallying a minus-one in plus-minus over 24 minutes. Freshman Declan Cutler was plus-four in 11 minutes, totaling two points, three rebounds and one assist.

Senior starter Alex Tew totaled zero points, two rebounds and one steal, committing three turnovers and shooting 0 for 3 while fouling out and tallying minus-nine in 16 minutes.

In a points system that awards 1.5 points for road wins and one point for a home win, the Big Sky-Summit Challenge was tied after Day 1 on Wednesday. But the Summit League emphatically retained the trophy on Day 2, going 12-6 between men’s and women’s competition Saturday.

Weber State men’s basketball next prepares for a road trip to Utah Tech on Friday, Dec. 13.