Weber State basketball: Vartiainen leads decisive win over Kansas City
MBB final: Weber State 82, Kansas City 61
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- Weber State forward Nigel Burris (5) drives round Kansas City’s Chris Dockery on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State guard Viljami Vartiainen (8) rises for a 3-pointer against Kansas City on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State guard Jace Whiting drives to the hoop against Kansas City on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State center Malek Gomma (7) shoots over Kansas City’s Jerome Palm (33) on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State forward Nigel Burris (5) shoots a 3-pointer over Kansas City’s Jerome Palm (33) on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
OGDEN — Kansas City’s coaches repeatedly wrote on and cleared a rectangular dry-erase board split in two columns: one listing Weber State’s players by number, the other listing Kansas City player names according to their defensive assignments.
For 29 minutes of action, that board showed “8 shooter” in the Weber State column — but knowing data and doing something about it are different battles.
Vartiainen made 5 of his first 7 attempts from the 3-point line, including two in a game-deciding run on either side of halftime, and Weber State dispatched Kansas City in a wire-to-wire, 82-61 victory for a Saturday matinee at the Dee Events Center.
The junior from Finland led five WSU double-digit scorers with 17 points to get the Wildcats in the win column following a one-point loss to UT Arlington and a brief Thanksgiving break.
“I thought we got better in some crucial areas,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said. “I think late game, knowing what we’re going to do there … we adjusted some spacing concepts on offense and that helped us a little bit.”
Junior forward Edwin Suarez Jr. added 16 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in a mercurial but impactful game: Weber State (3-4) won the second half by nine and Suarez was plus-13 after halftime and plus-16 overall despite his four turnovers.
“We had 18 assists and that’s great, but we had 15 turnovers. We’ve got to solve that,” Duft said. “Edwin … he gets the ball, something’s happening. … It wasn’t just him; we’ve got to take care of the ball a little bit better. And I think some of that is just learning to play with each other.”
The junior college transfer said he’s leaning on his strengths to make an impact.
“Just rebounding,” Suarez said about his impact and how WSU won the game. “I feel like it was rebounding and whoever played tougher.”
Sophomore guard Trevor Hennig added 13 points and three steals, junior guard Jace Whiting added 12 points and junior guard Tijan Saine Jr. pitched in 11 points and five assists.
Junior center Malek Gomma added four points, eight rebounds and five assists, and senior forward Nigel Burris totaled nine points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes.
WSU shot 10 of 23 from the 3-point line, with Whiting going 2 of 4, and outrebounded Kansas City 41-24.
For Kansas City (1-6), Jerome Palm scored 13 post points on 6-of-8 shooting. Guard Jayson Petty also scored 13, making three of the Roos’ six triples (the team shot 6 of 20; opponents are shooting 20.4% from deep against WSU this season).
Former WSU player Chris Dockery, by way of Independence Community College, had two points and two rebounds in 18 minutes for the visitors.
Vartiainen had frustrated the Roos enough that a physical attempt to deny him the ball atop the perimeter with 5 minutes left knocked him hard to the court and saw Vartiainen leave for the locker room with help after clutching his right knee.
Early examination showed Vartiainen seems to be OK, but he’ll soon have his knee imaged to make sure.
“Structurally, everything looks good,” Duft said. “Our doctors looked at him, and we’ve got a good medical staff here. They’ll get him back ready to go.”
Sloppy play limited WSU (favored by about 10 by advanced metrics) from pulling away for a time; live-ball turnovers led to some Kansas City points and kept Weber’s offense from taking off.
But after U’Riyah Evans drove to make the score 23-19 with 3:53 left in the first half, the Wildcats got going.
Saine converted a drive and passed another to Vartiainen for a corner 3 to spark a 12-4 run to end the half with WSU leading 35-23. Vartiainen connected on another corner triple to open the second half and keep the run going; Suarez nestled a basket home on a give-and-go from Gomma and Whiting hit from downtown to cap the rally at 20-6 over a 6-minute period, good for a 43-25 lead.
WSU led 48-30 at the first media timeout of the half but, over the next 9 minutes, allowed a driving Kansas City to shoot 10 of its next 12 from the field. That included a 10-0 run to make it 48-40.
“That 8 minutes or so in the second half, we just completely lost our defensive identity and that can’t happen,” Duft said. “We’ve got to stay way more dialed in defensively, so that was a little disappointing. … Just completely lost our ball pressure and gap presence.
“Once we found it, we kept it and we got stop after stop.”
Hennig’s only 3-pointer restored WSU to a 53-42 lead with 11:45 left and the Roos didn’t get the margin to single digits again.
On the inbound pass after the under-4-minute media timeout, a cutting Suarez converted a hoop plus the harm, putting WSU up 71-56. His team sealed the deal down the stretch as Weber held Kansas City to two field goals in the final 7 minutes.
CHALLENGE GAMES, SCHEDULE CHANGE
WSU next plays its two Big Sky-Summit Challenge games, first with Oral Roberts visiting Ogden at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3.
Weber State’s trip to St. Thomas has been pushed back a day for an 11 a.m. MST tipoff on Sunday, Dec. 7. Weber then stays on the road for the return trip to Kansas City on Dec. 10 and plays at Utah Valley on Dec. 17.
