Weber State basketball: WSU men blast Oral Roberts in home blowout
MBB final: Weber State 92, Oral Roberts 66
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- Weber State guard Duce Paschal (9) drives to the basket against Oral Roberts on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State forward Nigel Burris (5) dunks over Oral Roberts center Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State center Malek Gomma (7) shoots over Oral Roberts player Aaron Jacob (10) on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State guard Tijan Saine Jr. (3) drives against Oral Roberts guard Cal Furnish on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State center Declan Cutler (15) dunks over Oral Roberts player Jack Turner (0) on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
OGDEN — For the second time in the young season, Weber State men’s basketball faced the prospect of playing a DI opponent without a starter and a top-three scorer, taking on visiting Oral Roberts without junior sharpshooter Viljami Vartiainen after the knee injury he suffered late in Saturday’s game against Kansas City.
But for the second time, the Wildcats used the scenario to pour big runs on their opponent. Weber State held Oral Roberts to a drought of 1-of-15 shooting over 9 minutes and racked up a 28-4 first-half run to bury the Golden Eagles 92-66 in the first day of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge on Wednesday.
“We won this game as a team. I would definitely say that it was a culture win,” WSU senior forward Nigel Burris said. “We were connected, and that’s what really mattered.”
Without Vartiainen, Weber State (4-4) put five players in double figures. Junior guard Jace Whiting led all scorers with 18 points, adding four assists. Junior point guard Tijan Saine Jr. quietly racked up 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists against just one turnover in 29 minutes.
Edwin Suarez Jr. added 14 points and seven rebounds on 6-of-8 shooting and Burris tallied 11 points and two steals on 5-of-5 shooting. And in just 13:38 of court time, true freshman Duce Paschal jumped in with 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks.
Malek Gomma added eight points, five rebounds and three assists, and Trevor Hennig pitched in seven points and four assists.
WSU head coach Eric Duft said as much as they’ll miss Vartiainen while he’s out, the team stepped up collectively and had a spirited, “confrontational” practice Tuesday and that edge, he said, spilled into Wednesday’s game.
Whiting said he specifically had made some mental errors and missed assignments against Kansas City and was ready to play better.
“(Duft) and coach Russ (Dan Russell) jumped me a little bit about it, and I was grateful for it because this week, I was very much so locked in and mentally prepared, and I think that rubbed off on a lot of the other guys, too,” Whiting said. “My voice got louder and, in turn, everybody’s voice got louder, and we were all a lot more mentally locked in.”
ORU (3-7) leading scorer Ty Harper got to the paint for a bucket and cut the score to 12-10 at the 12:10 mark of the first half. He led the Golden Eagles with 18 points.
Weber ended the game over the next 9 minutes and kept the foot on the gas to the finish line; ORU’s only lead of the game came at 3-0.
Paschal’s energy sparked the eventual 28-4 run. He attacked the paint and got to the free-throw line for two makes, blocked ORU center Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams and then drove for a bucket in succession. Burris added five points, including an and-one, and an 11-0 spurt got things started.
Jack Turner hit a 3 to try and turn the tide for Oral Roberts, but it didn’t. Saine and David Hansen made 3-pointers to cap the run and WSU led 40-14 with 3:30 left in the first half.
“We were aggressive, physical. We made them uncomfortable,” Burris said about WSU’s defense.
The Golden Eagles couldn’t put much of a divot in that margin the rest of the way in a game Duft called a true 40-minute effort from his Wildcats, and it soon became clear in the second half the expected seven-point margin predicted by several models was well in the rear-view mirror.
Connor Dow (16 points) hit two of his four 3-pointers early in the second half and one briefly made the score 54-37 with 15:07 left, but that’s as close as ORU would get. Weber State hammered the visitors with transition pressure when possible, and cuts and backdoors in the halfcourt, until a Saine backdoor layup passed by Whiting made it 70-45 with 9:05 left.
Suarez scored on a cut after an interior dish from Gomma and made a free throw to put WSU ahead 84-54 with 4:50 left to help cap a string of 15 minutes where the Wildcats shot 19 of 26 from the floor.
WSU outscored ORU 58-16 in the paint.
The Wildcats next face St. Thomas (6-4) in the Tommies’ brand-new arena at 11 a.m. MST Sunday.
VARTIANEN’S STATUS
Vartiainen went down clutching his right knee late in last week’s win over Kansas City. He’s out for the near future, but Duft said the junior from Finland “avoided catastrophe” and is weeks, not months, from returning to the court.
“He’s going to be re-evaluated next week,” Duft said. “Right now, we’re pretty optimistic that we’ll have him for most, if not all, of league play.”
In seven games, Vartiainen averaged 11.4 points and led the team with 19 3-point makes.
SDSU 87, WSU 56
The Weber State women trailed by as many as 43 before scoring 27 fourth-quarter points in a matchup of two teams separated by 166 spots in the NCAA NET ratings on the first day of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.
Lanae Billy hit three 3-pointers to lead Weber State (2-6) with 13 points. Antoniette Emma-Nnopu scored eight of her 10 points in the fourth quarter after picking up two fouls in the game’s opening 3 minutes. WSU shot just 22.2% through three quarters before going 8 of 15 in the fourth.
SDSU (7-2) star post Brooklyn Meyer led the Jackrabbits with 19 points.
North Dakota State (6-2), which beat Montana State by 25 on Wednesday night, comes to Ogden on Saturday.
BIG SKY-SUMMIT MEN’S SCORES
Weber State 92, Oral Roberts 66
Northern Colorado 75, Omaha 70
Idaho State 68, Kansas City 59
Portland State 77, South Dakota 71
Montana State 82, St. Thomas 74
Idaho 90, North Dakota 58
Denver 93, E. Washington 89
N. Dakota State 81, Montana 72
S. Dakota State 75, N. Arizona 62
BIG SKY-SUMMIT WOMEN’S SCORES
Northern Colorado 72, Kansas City 59
Montana 86, North Dakota 56
Idaho State 74, Omaha 43
E. Washington 66, Denver 65
St. Thomas 74, N. Arizona 66
Oral Roberts 92, Idaho 89
N. Dakota State 90, Montana State 65
S. Dakota State 87, Weber State 56
South Dakota 75, Portland State 51
CHALLENGE SCORE
The Big Sky men went 6-3 and the women were 4-5 on the first day of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.
The points system awards 1.5 points for road wins and one point for home wins.
The Big Sky men won the points tally 7.5 to 4, while the Summit women had a 6 to 4.5 advantage.
In total points, the Big Sky leads 12-10 after the first leg. The second leg is Saturday except for the WSU men, who wrap things up with Sunday brunch at St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
