Weber State men fizzle out of Big Sky tournament in 24-point loss to N. Colorado
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- Weber State’s Vasilije Vucinic (13) hooks a shot over Northern Colorado’s Egan Shields on Sunday, March 9, 2025, during the Big Sky tournament quarterfinals in Boise, Idaho.
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- Weber State’s Blaise Threatt (0) drives against Northern Colorado’s Brock Wisne (14) on Sunday, March 9, 2025, during the Big Sky tournament quarterfinals in Boise, Idaho.
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- Weber State’s Alex Tew (20) tries to post up Northern Colorado’s Egan Shields (33) on Sunday, March 9, 2025, during the Big Sky tournament quarterfinals in Boise, Idaho.
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- Weber State’s Trevor Hennig (6) rises to shoot against Northern Colorado on Sunday, March 9, 2025, during the Big Sky tournament quarterfinals in Boise, Idaho.
Saturday’s offensive explosion turned out to be less a harbinger of a tournament run and more one good effort against the league’s worst team.
Tired legs, overmatched or both, No. 9 Weber State men’s basketball didn’t carry any momentum from its 83-70 first-round win over Sacramento State into Sunday’s Big Sky Conference quarterfinal against No. 1 Northern Colorado, ending its season with a 76-52 blowout loss at Idaho Central Arena in Boise, Idaho.
The offseason path forward for Weber State (12-22) is uncertain after historic lows in several areas while Northern Colorado (24-8) advances to Tuesday’s semifinals.
“Obviously not our best night. A lot of times this time of season, it’s a make-or-miss game. Last night, we made a bunch of shots and we played well. Tonight, we missed a lot, especially in the first half; just really had trouble getting the ball to go in the basket,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said. “Credit to Northern Colorado, they did a good job defensively … they played well.
“Defensively, we weren’t as bad probably as maybe it looks; I think our offense contributed a lot to that. Guys played hard, really proud of our effort. Just didn’t play great, so the result is what it is.”
For some time into the second half, NoCo senior Isaiah Hawthorne had more field goals than Weber State. In Saturday’s win, Blaise Threatt and Viljami Vartiainen combined to shoot 20 of 31, but no such offense existed Sunday.
The Bears hit three early 3s and shot to a 17-2 lead. WSU senior center Vasilije Vucinic scored an and-one and on a post-up, making it 20-9 with 11:15 left in the first half.
The Wildcats wouldn’t make another field goal for almost 9 minutes of game time — when, after going to the locker room due to a blow to the head, Vucinic returned and hooked in a second-chance bucket with 2:34 left in the half.
Thanks to free throws, WSU had it as close as 22-14 and trailed by 12 when Vucinic snapped the drought, but that’s as close as it would get. Hawthorne hit one of his four 3-pointers and Northern Colorado ended the half on an 8-0 run, leading 42-22 at the break.
Vucinic shot 3 of 3 in the first half; all other Wildcats were 2 of 23. Hawthorne alone had 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting for the No. 1 seed.
At one point early in the second half, a pair of Trevor Hennig free throws gave WSU — which started 0 of 8 from distance after shooting 12 of 24 the day before — 15 points from free throws compared to 12 from field goals, trailing 50-27.
“Tonight, what we played against is exactly the opposite of what we played against last night,” Duft explained. “Teams in our league, they’ve got to make a decision on how they want to guard Blaise. Sac State chose to put two on the ball, they’re hard-hedging Blaise so it’s going to allow some of these other guys to lift up and Blaise is going to hit them on the snaps.
“Northern Colorado doesn’t. They do have one of the guys in the league who can physically handle Blaise in Langston Reynolds. They choose to go under and stay attached to our other guys so it makes it hard for us at times to create some offense. Two different games. It’s what we expected; we didn’t make enough baskets to make them pay.”
Vartiainen soon hit his team’s only two 3-pointers, keying an 8-1 spurt to cut it to 53-35. With 14:50 left, that was still within shouting distance but Weber State didn’t have nearly enough in the tank to make anything more of it.
On 5-of-18 shooting, Threatt finished with 12 points, giving him 10 or more points in all 32 games he played this season. He added eight rebounds and zero assists, his only zero-assist game this season.
“This program’s meant everything to me,” Threatt said. “When I got recruited out of Division 2, one of the things — Duft came to my house in Colorado to recruit me. He’s the only coach who took an in-home visit with me and (was) really serious about me.
“These past two years, I’ve given everything, my body to this program, to these coaches. They set a standard and I tried to reach it every day, I never shortcut it. I’m really thankful for the university, for the coaches, for these players … I feel like I’ve grown tremendously, and I’m really grateful.”
Vartiainan and Vucinic each added 10 points. Shooting 2 of 5 from distance, Vartiainen finished the season as WSU’s best 3-point shooter at a 40.7% clip.
Hennig scored nine points, shooting 7 of 8 at the foul line.
Hawthorne, a fifth-year transfer from San Francisco, finished with 29 points on 10-of-14 shooting, approaching his career high of 32. He added seven rebounds. Brock Wisne scored 12 points. Jaron Rillie pitched in 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
The game marked the final contest for seniors Threatt, Vucinic and Alex Tew; Tew tallied four points, two rebounds and two steals. Threatt scored 986 points in two seasons at WSU and 2,181 points in 145 games over his five-year college career.
In Sunday’s other quarterfinal, No. 2 Montana worked past a threatening No. 7 Northern Arizona and 34 points from Trent McLaughlin to advance to the semifinals 74-65. Brandon Whitney scored 24 points on 8-of-9 shooting.
