Weber State basketball handles Idaho State 83-73; Saine injured late
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- Weber State guard Viljami Vartiainen (8) lets a 3-point attempt fly in a Big Sky Conference game against Idaho State on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
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- Weber State forward Nigel Burris (5) shoots against contact from Idaho State’s Martin Kheil (11) in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
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- Idaho State forward Caleb van de Griend, left, attempts to score against an airborne Edwin Suarez Jr. of Weber State in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
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- Weber State guard Trevor Hennig, center left, goes up for a shot against Idaho State’s Gus Etchison in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
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- Weber State forward Edwin Suarez Jr., center right, tries to score through Idaho State contact in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
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- Weber State forward Declan Cutler (15) grabs a rebound against Idaho State in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
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- Idaho State forward Caleb van de Griend, left, attempts a shot against Weber State’s Declan Cutler (15) in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
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- Weber State guard Viljami Vartiainen (8) rises to shoot over Idaho State’s Lachlan Brewer (12) in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
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- Weber State assistant coach Dan Russell, right, diagrams on his board for Viljami Vartiainen and Trevor Hennig in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Pocatello, Idaho.
Weber State men’s basketball owned either side of halftime on the way to an 83-73 victory over Idaho State on Saturday evening in Pocatello, the Wildcats’ fifth win in the last six games, but leave the Gem State with some concern over leading scorer Tijan Saine Jr. who went down late with an ankle injury.
Saine led Weber State (16-14, 10-7 Big Sky) with 24 points and four assists, his 12th game in 17 conference contests scoring 20 or more points, but left the game with 50 seconds left after rolling his ankle. Saine contested a Cheikh Sow 3-pointer and curled around him to go the other way, but slipped on either a wet court spot or a referee’s foot and went down.
“We don’t know yet, we’ll just have to see,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said. “We think it’s a Grade 1 ankle sprain, that’s the best thing. But these guys are tough as can be and the adrenaline gets going, so we’re just going to have to see how it reacts and go from there.
“Just a physical game, that team was playing really well last weekend, was on a high. I thought our guys were locked in; I think we’re a team that’s getting better.”
With the Wildcats headed to Portland for a Monday night matchup with Portland State, WSU may need to decide on preparing Saine for the conference tournament, especially considering this week’s results did not lend themselves to Weber making a jump up the standings.
All of the game’s five lead changes came early in consecutive possessions, a series ending on a Saine reverse layup that put Weber State ahead 11-10 and for the rest of the game. WSU led by as much as 11 in the first half and took a 38-32 lead into the break.
WSU senior Nigel Burris and junior Viljami Vartiainen hit consecutive 3-pointers out of halftime to go up 44-32, and WSU led by double digits for all but 20 seconds of the remaining 18:25. Another Vartiainen 3 capped a 13-4 run in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the half for a 51-36 lead, and the Bengals spent the entire half unable to chip away enough to threaten.
Vartiainen — who shot 4 of 8 from the 3-point line, improving to a 47.3% clip in Big Sky games — made his final triple to put the game away 78-61 with 2:55 left. Idaho State (12-18, 5-12) used a full-court press to create enough havoc to cut the score to 83-73 on a Connor Hollenbeck third-chance tip-in with 23.3 seconds remaining.
Vartiainen finished with 16 points and six rebounds for WSU. He’s four 3-pointers away (173) from moving past Alex Fisher (1995-98) into eighth place on Weber’s career leaderboard for 3-point field goals. His 40.8% career mark is also currently eighth in WSU history.
Trevor Hennig scored 13 points off the bench. Burris totaled 11 points and nine rebounds, and Malek Gomma pitched in nine points and five rebounds.
“(Burris) was terrific on the glass today. … I thought he set the tone early in the game,” Duft said.
Edwin Suarez Jr. added seven points, five rebounds, two assists and four steals with zero turnovers in 16 minutes off the bench.
The Wildcats finished 30 of 58 (51.7%) from the field, including 14 of 25 (56%) in the second half. WSU scored 28 points in the paint in the first half, then hurt ISU behind the arc with a 6-of-12 mark after halftime.
Forwards Hollenbeck and Caleb van de Griend each scored 15 points for Idaho State, as did cooled-off bench guard Gus Etchison. After scoring 65 points in two games last week, WSU held the senior to his 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Etchison added seven assists.
It was a flip from WSU’s win in Ogden in which Hollenbeck scored 27, Martin Kheil 19 and Evan Otten 13, while van de Griend and Etchison scored zero. Saturday, Kheil and Otten combined for two points.
AROUND THE BIG SKY
Home teams ahead of Weber State held serve twice this week, meaning the Wildcats’ chances of moving up from fourth or fifth all the way to second place are now minimal headed to Monday’s final matchups.
Portland State has lost four of its last five and will get its third and final chance to win the Big Sky outright Monday when WSU comes to town. The Vikings lost on the road to Montana State and Montana this week, with the Griz winning 74-68 on Saturday.
Eastern Washington won its eighth straight game with a 31-point beatdown of Northern Arizona.
Portland State (12-5) has a one-game lead over Montana State and Eastern Washington (each 11-6), with Montana and Weber State (each 10-7) tied for fourth. Northern Colorado (9-8), winners in eight of their last nine, is in sixth place, and hosts Montana on Monday.
“I had a Power Five buddy of mine, an assistant coach, tell me he thinks our league’s the most balanced in the country,” Duft said. “It’s going to be a dog fight in Boise, and that’s how everybody wants it.”
WBB: ISU 59, WSU 54
Weber State women’s basketball cut an eight-point deficit to two points three times in the final 3 minutes but couldn’t get enough stops to find a victory Saturday afternoon in the Dee Events Center.
Lanae Billy made two 3-pointers to cut a 49-41 deficit to 49-47 with 2:50 left. She led Weber State (9-21, 3-14 Big Sky) with 15 points. Sydney White added 11 points and five assists. Hannah Robbins added nine points, and Antoniette Emma-Nnopu totaled five points and 13 rebounds.
Idaho State (19-9, 12-5) got 13 points and 14 rebounds from Kacey Spink, and 12 points and nine rebounds from Piper Carlson.
WSU hosts Portland State (6-23, 2-15) at 6 p.m. Monday in the first of two straight games against the Vikings. The two teams are locked into the Big Sky Tournament’s first matchup, the game that pits No. 9 against No. 10, come noon Saturday, March 7, in Boise.
