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Weber State guard Tijan Saine Jr. (3) drives past Eastern Washington's Straton Rogers (12) in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, in Cheney, Wash.

Paul Grua, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State guard Viljami Vartiainen (8) drives against Eastern Washington's JoJo Anderson in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, in Cheney, Wash.

Photo supplied, EWU Athletics

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As well as Weber State men’s basketball opened Thursday’s win at Idaho was as poor as the Wildcats began Saturday afternoon’s contest at Eastern Washington.

The Eagles used an early 13-0 run to lead 25-6 at the game’s second media timeout and won their fourth straight game, immediately stopping any good vibes the Wildcats gained from Thursday’s wire-to-wire win with an 84-66 drubbing.

Eastern Washington (9-17, 7-6) made 14 of its first 18 shots to lead 51-24 at halftime and dominated the paint from start to finish (26-8 in the first half, 44-28 overall) while Weber State (13-14, 7-7) skidded off the road.

“They’re playing as good as anyone in the conference,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said in a postgame radio interview. “Their last four games, very impressive. They’re an old team, seven seniors. They played terrific and sometimes you have to hand it to them.

“I thought we were kind of slow … and lacked that edge we’ve had.”

The result moved Eastern Washington into fourth place and bumped WSU down to a tie for fifth with Northern Colorado (17-10, 7-7), now winners of six straight after beating first-place Portland State (17-7, 11-2).

Alton Hamilton IV scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the first half. Kiree Huie scored 20 points, and he and post-mate Hamilton combined to shoot 15 of 20 from the floor. EWU finished 30 of 50 (60%) overall. Isaiah Moses hit all three of his 3-point attempts for 11 points; the Eagles were 7 of 17 from distance.

“When you go on the road, you can’t give up the 3-point line and … we said going into it to our guys, we’ve got to be able to win one-on-one post matchups, and they obviously outplayed us,” Duft said.

WSU junior guard Tijan Saine Jr. scored 20 points, his seventh straight game with 20 or more, to lead the Wildcats. Viljami Vartiainen scored 15 points but shot 4 of 13; freshman guard Duce Paschal added 14 points, a career-high against Division I opponents.

Saine and Paschal combined to shoot 12 of 23 (52.2%); all other Wildcats shot 9 of 31 (29%) and the team was 3 of 19 from the 3-point line.

“Our best guys, none of them had a very good night tonight. Nigel (Burris), that’s about as bad as he’s played in quite a while. Viljami had a lot of errors in the first half. Tijan was OK but not great, and got in some foul trouble early,” Duft said. “I thought our offense in the first half killed our defense. … The good shots we did get, we missed, and we didn’t get enough good shots.”

After returning from a four-game absence Thursday following a prolonged illness, sophomore guard Trevor Hennig was again unavailable Saturday. It’s unclear why he was inactive. Junior guard Jace Whiting missed his eighth consecutive game with a foot injury.

Weber State finishes its home schedule in the coming week, hosting second-place Montana State (15-11, 9-4) on Thursday and third-place Montana (14-12, 8-5) on Saturday. MSU handled Montana 82-71 on Saturday to sweep the rivalry series.

Duft said his team beat up Idaho and perhaps got “a little full of ourselves” because of it.

“We’ve got to humble ourselves, know we have to play a certain way and have to have a certain edge to us for us to be successful,” Duft said. “You have to play with energy, edge, whether it’s first half, second half, whatever.”

WBB: WSU 74, EWU 72 (OT)

Junior point guard Sydney White scored 10 of her career-high 19 points in the fourth quarter to help Weber State women’s basketball force overtime, where the Wildcats led from the jump to claim the team’s second conference win.

Senior forward Antoniette Emma-Nnopu scored seven of her team’s 10 points in overtime, including a 3-pointer 15 seconds into the frame to put Weber State (8-19, 2-12) ahead for good.

The Wildcats finished 13 of 23 (56.5%) from the 3-point line. White hit a 3 and scored a drive to put WSU up 57-52 with 4:43 left in the fourth quarter. EWU answered with a 9-1 run before White made another 3 to tie the game. Emma-Nnopu’s 3 with 1:08 left was the tying basket, setting up extra time.

White added six rebounds, four assists and three steals for WSU. Emma-Nnopu totaled 14 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks, four steals and three assists. Hannah Robbins and Lanae Billy each had 13 points, and Paris Lauro pitched in nine points on 3 of 3 from distance.

Ella Gallatin led Eastern (12-14, 5-8) with 26 points, playing 43 minutes. Jaecy Eggers added 11 points and 14 rebounds.