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Weber State guard Jace Whiting (24) floats in the lane for a shot attempt against Sacramento State's Shaqir O'Neal, center, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

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Weber State guard ArDarius Grayson leans back for a jump shot against Sacramento State on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

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Weber State forward Edwin Suarez Jr. (0) shoots against Sacramento State's Mikey Williams, left, and Mark Lavrenov (32) on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

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Weber State guard Tijan Saine Jr. (3) rises to the cup against Sacramento State on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

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Weber State forward Edwin Suarez Jr. (0) leans toward the basket against Sacramento State on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

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OGDEN — Sacramento State men’s basketball arrived in Ogden with a former NBA point guard at head coach, a starting guard with 3.1 million Instagram followers, a forward whose Hall of Fame father is the program’s general manager, a videographer (rare at this level for a road team) and a security guard for the bench (even more rare).

Weber State had Viljami Vartiainen.

The junior sharpshooter lifted the lid in his second game back from a knee injury, tormenting the Hornets for the fourth straight outing by hitting six 3-pointers and helping lead the Wildcats to a 95-82 victory Saturday night at the Dee Events Center.

It was WSU’s highest-scoring output in a conference game in the last five seasons.

“We really locked in and played well,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said. “Almost every game’s the same for them, it’s back and forth … but you have to keep scoring because they’re hard to stop.

“Tonight, we just kept making baskets and got enough stops and rebounds.”

Vartiainen made four 3s in the first 7:40 of game time to put Weber State (7-8, 1-1 Big Sky) ahead 24-10. Sacramento State (4-10, 0-2) spent the rest of the game chasing that margin; WSU led for 38:43 of the game’s 40 minutes and, of those, spent approximately 23 minutes leading by double digits.

“He’s the Finnish Klay Thompson,” WSU point guard Tijan Saine Jr. said about Vartiainen. “It makes my job a lot easier, you can’t help off the corner. … My brother’s back, you know. It feels great.”

Vartiainen scored 15 first-half points and finished the game 6 of 8 from distance for 20 points. He’s averaging 24 points per game in the last four meetings with Sac State while shooting 23 of 37 (62.2%) on 3-pointers.

“I wish there was a secret for how I’m doing against Sac State because then I’d be doing it every game,” Vartiainen quipped.

Saine totaled 20 points himself, adding three rebounds, three assists and four steals. Senior forward Nigel Burris had an efficient 14 points and six rebounds off the bench. Jace Whiting added 11 points, six rebounds and three assists, Edwin Suarez Jr. pitched in nine points and eight rebounds, and Malek Gomma had seven points and seven rebounds.

Mikey Williams — the aforementioned social media star who was one of the nation’s top high school recruits and found more spotlight at Overtime Elite before being accused of shooting a gun at a car leaving his California home that resulted in a plea deal for making a criminal threat and him not seeing the court at Memphis before transferring to Central Florida last season and now Sacramento State — scored 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting.

Williams showed his gifted offensive playmaking in spurts, including two tough shots in a 9-0 run that got the Hornets out of the 24-10 hole. But the Wildcats were soon off to a 12-2 run after Vartiainen hit his fifth 3 of the half and freshman ArDarius Grayson canned a triple on a kickout from Trevor Hennig to make it 38-24.

A 7-1 run Sac State run preceded Weber on an 11-3 advantage to push the lead to 16 before the Hornets cut it to 50-39 at the half.

The teams traded buckets in the second half until a Whiting floater-plus-foul had Weber State up 67-52. That’s when Prophet Johnson got in the scorebook; Sac State’s leading scorer in nonconference play scored all seven of his points for the game in an ensuing 9-0 run, cutting WSU’s lead to 67-61 with 10 minutes left.

Consecutive and-ones from Burris and Saine helped stem the tide before the sequence that all but decided the game: Vartiainen hit his only triple of the second half before a Burris second effort extended a WSU possession and saw the senior drive baseline for a basket, putting the Wildcats up 80-67 with 6:10 left.

WSU improved on Thursday’s free-throw shooting with a 26-of-34 mark, making Sac State pay for its physical attempts at defense, and also shot 9 of 18 from distance.

Jayden Teat knocked in three 3-pointers to add 12 points to Sacramento State’s effort. Shaqir O’Neal, the aforementioned son of a Hall of Famer, pulled down eight rebounds.

WSU players said despite the added media attention to Sac State, it was just another game against another opponent they needed to scout and play well to beat.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s the son of LeBron James or just a random person, we’ve got to come out and give 100 every day,” Saine said.

Mike Bibby, Sac State’s first-year college basketball coach, is now 1-10 against Division I opponents while the Hornets are in a mind-boggling two-month stretch. Sac will have played seven straight on the road by the time it plays in Sacramento again on Jan. 15 and will have gone seven weeks between home games.

The finish saw referees whistle three technical fouls and one flagrant in the final 1:30 of the contest. WSU drew two of the techs (Burris for staring after a dunk, and Saine on a double tech with someone on Sac State’s bench) and the flagrant (Suarez for contact to the head on what was initially a foul against Sac State) — as confusing as it all was.

“I wouldn’t say it was the best approach. But, we stayed together,” Saine said. “We sent a message … that we’re going to stand on our own 10 and be very firm in what we believe. When things get chippy, we have each other’s back.”

“Just giving them free points,” Vartiainen added, “it’s a fine line with being smart with that.”

It was a chippy end to a game that seemed to feature more chatter than usual from both sides.

“Sometimes that can get your team going, and we’ve got some competitive guys,” Duft said. “We’re not going to back down. … We’ve got to control our emotions a little better but tonight, I thought we competed really hard.”

Weber State next takes its first road trip of conference play, playing at Northern Arizona on Thursday followed by Northern Colorado on Saturday.

Northern Colorado, the best team in the conference before league play, is 0-2 after losing both legs of the Montana road trip. Saturday in Missoula, Money Williams scored 31 points, all in a second half that saw him shoot 17 of 17 at the foul line, to defeat the Bears.

The two Montana teams and Portland State are 2-0 to start the schedule. The Vikings followed Thursday’s overtime win in Ogden with an overtime victory at Idaho State in which PSU outscored ISU 46-26 in the final 15 minutes. It was the fourth least-likely win in all of college basketball this season, according to Ken Pomeroy, when Idaho State led 75-66 with 2:00 left.