Threatt shines, Weber State men’s basketball takes exhibition over Adams State
An anticipated element of Weber State men’s basketball’s upcoming season is seeing senior point guard Blaise Threatt take primary ball-handling duties and how that impacts the Wildcats’ prospects.
Monday night may have given the first glimpse.
Threatt’s all-around performance led Weber State to an 83-63 exhibition victory over Adams State at the Dee Events Center, the final preseason tune-up before the season begins next week.
Threatt totaled 15 points, nine assists, eight rebounds and three steals, shooting 7 of 8 and committing one turnover in 29 minutes.
On consecutive 3-pointers from senior guard Miguel Tomley, Weber State shot to a 32-13 lead just more than midway through the first half. After a timeout, Adams State — a Division II team from Alamosa, Colorado — slowed Weber’s hot start and answered with a 13-2 run to keep the Wildcats from running completely away.
Still, WSU led from start to finish and the margin was double digits for most of the night. The Wildcats led 42-31 at halftime and outscored the Grizzlies 41-32 in the second half.
“We had a hard week of practice, we pushed our guys really hard and I thought they competed well, got some jitters out. That’s always good in these games,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said. “I thought the young players did a good job with the minutes they got. Overall, a good night for us.”
Sophomore Viljami Vartiainen also scored 15 points, adding five rebounds, and shot 3 of 7 from distance. Tomley totaled 14 points on 4-of-8 from 3, and junior forward Nigel Burris scored 14 points.
Vartiainen, Tomley and Burris combined to shoot 9 of 18 from the 3-point line; all other Wildcats were 0 of 9.
Trevor Hennig scored eight points off the bench. Senior center Alex Tew totaled six points on 6-of-6 free-throw shooting, adding six rebounds in 21 minutes. Senior center Vasilije Vucinic added six points and six rebounds in 12 minutes. Marko Sarenac grabbed five rebounds.
Weber State shot 31 of 58 (53.5%) from the field. Adams State was 23 of 65 (35.4%), led by Nian Allen’s 13 points.
Weber State kept itself from running away with things, too, slowing a 6-of-7 start from the field with five turnovers in the first five minutes, totaling 11 in the first half.
“We’ve got to take care of the ball; I think we only had four (turnovers) in the second half, so that was good. That’s a thing we’ve got to sure up a little bit because we shot the ball well this game, we’ve just got to make sure we’re getting enough shots,” Duft said. “Just some rhythm playing with each other, trying to incorporate Miggy, Nigel and (Vucinic) into our veteran guys that are returning.
“It’s going to take us a little time but I like where we’re going. We’ve got a great group, they were really connected tonight, played hard. I like where we’re at, just have to continue to get better.”
Senior wing Dyson Koehler was again inactive.
Weber State begins the regular season Monday, Nov. 4, hosting Northwest Indian College.
BIG SKY TO AIR TIP-OFF SHOW
The Big Sky Conference has helped produce 10 team tip-off shows to preview the basketball season, including interviews with men’s and women’s coaches and players. This will initially stream on the Big Sky’s YouTube channel at noon Thursday, featuring those interviews and other content.
Weber State’s portion of the production will also be broadcast over the air on Utah 16 at 9:30 p.m. Friday.
WSU MEN 3RD & 4TH, WOMEN 9TH & 10TH
Weber State’s men’s team was picked third and fourth, and the women’s team ninth and 10th, in this season’s Big Sky Conference preseason polls.
The WSU men received one first-place vote in the coaches poll and was voted fourth overall. In the media poll, WSU was voted third with seven first-place votes out of 33 ballots.
Montana (coaches) and Montana State (media) shared No. 1 honors. Northern Arizona’s Trent McLaughlin was voted preseason MVP, joining Weber State’s Miguel Tomley, Idaho’s Julius Mims, and both Brandon Walker and Brian Goracke from Montana State.
The league’s coaches voted Weber State’s women last (10th) and media placed them ninth. The Wildcats, with 10 newcomers, did not have any players voted to preseason honors. Northern Arizona, Montana State and Montana were voted 1-3 in both polls.
Northern Arizona got both preseason MVP honors with Sophia Glancey getting the nod on the women’s side. She’s joined by teammate Leia Beattie, Montana’s Dani Bartsch, Sacramento State’s Benthe Versteeg, and Esmerelda Morales and Marah Dykstra from Montana State.