Weber State basketball makes plays down stretch to win at Northern Colorado
MBB final: Weber State 76, Northern Colorado 71
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- Weber State forward Nigel Burris finishes a dunk against Northern Colorado on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Greeley, Colo.
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- Weber State guard Tijan Saine Jr. (3) rises to the hoop against Northern Colorado’s Quinn Denker on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Greeley, Colo.
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- Weber State forward Edwin Suarez Jr., center, drives into the paint against Northern Colorado on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Greeley, Colo.
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- Weber State guard Jace Whiting, left, drives into contact against Northern Colorado’s Brock Wisne on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Greeley, Colo.
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- Weber State players Edwin Suarez Jr., left, and Jace Whiting, right, prepare to rebound a free-throw attempt against Northern Colorado’s Ring Nyeri on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Greeley, Colo.
It’s been eight years since Weber State and Northern Colorado played a men’s basketball result to within five points or less in Greeley. Over that stretch, margins in favor of NoCo include a 34-point win, one win by 24 points (and another by 24 in the conference tournament), and an 18-point victory. Weber had wins in Greeley of 19 and nine points in that stretch.
So when Saturday night’s margin was never larger than six points for the final 14 minutes, it was a rare close battle between the pair inside Bank of Colorado Arena, one that required clutch plays to claim victory.
In the final 4-minute stretch, Weber State made most of those plays and found itself 76-71 victors for a 2-0 road weekend.
“What a good win,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said in a postgame radio interview. “I thought there was a time in the second half where maybe (the road trip) is catching up to us, we looked a little fatigued, and we just found it again.
“We just had another team effort tonight. … We’ve got some competitive guys on this team and you’ve got to have that; the competitiveness just carries you when things aren’t going well. It wasn’t an X’s and O’s game; this was a player’s game. Our staff did a great job … but guys have to step up and make plays, and credit to our guys to do that.”
Most key to the victory: Northern Colorado shot 1 of 14 from the 3-point line. The Bears were 15th nationally with an average of 10.9 makes per game and were 16 of 35 from distance in Thursday’s win over Idaho State. WSU is now 20th nationally in 3-point percentage defense against Division I opponents.
“If they shot 35 tonight, we were going to get killed. Our whole deal was, we can’t let them shoot 3s, they have to shoot twos,” Duft said. “You can’t always impact if they make it or miss it, but you can impact if they shoot it or not. So the 14 attempts are what I was really proud of tonight.”
A three-point play from senior Nigel Burris and a clutch 18-foot jumper from freshman guard ArDarius Grayson had WSU ahead 66-60 with 3:13 left. But Ring Nyeri, active in the paint all night for 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting, tipped in a Northern Colorado teammate’s miss to make it 66-64. Edwin Suarez Jr. and Quinn Denker traded baskets, then Denker’s one free throw saw an answer from Tijan Saine Jr. with two freebies for a 70-67 margin with 58.7 left.
Someone needed a big play and WSU junior Viljami Vartiainen provided the sequence. He poked a steal away from Denker on a perimeter action to get Weber a stop and then, with the shot clock dwindling at the other end, muscled a drive from the corner to the block and dished to a cutting Suarez for a layin, putting the Wildcats up 72-67 with 21.4 seconds remaining.
It was far from over there. Trading free throw trips, Northern Colorado cut it to 73-71 when Vartiainen fouled Zach Bloch on a 3-pointer. He made 2 of 3; the miss came on the final attempt and the rebound went out of bounds to Weber, but was reversed to NoCo after review. Poised to tie it, the Bears instead turned it over when center Brock Wisne fouled Vartiainen, hitting him in the face on a move to the basket during the inbound play.
It was Saine’s turn at the free-throw line and, with 5 seconds left, he made his first. Now 8 of 8 for the game, he missed the second that would’ve sealed the game. Wisne had the rebound but Saine kept his head up, quite literally, and stole away Wisne’s outlet pass and was fouled again.
Saine made his next two free throws to seal the game.
A mercurial Suarez led Weber State (9-8, 3-1 Big Sky) with 18 points and eight rebounds. Though with four turnovers and some costly, ill-advised shot attempts, Suarez made momentum-swinging plays too.
Trailing by as many as seven in the opening stretch of the second half, Suarez restored WSU to the lead by himself. He scored in the post late in the shot clock, tipped in a missed Jace Whiting floater, and swiped a perimeter steal for an easy transition layup on three straight possessions. WSU led 51-50 with 10:30 left after that sequence.
“He’s got a different gear,” Duft said about Suarez. “He’s got that fifth gear. He doesn’t play in fifth gear the whole time. He plays in second gear some … but at the end of games, these last two games, he’s played in fifth gear and he’s hard to handle.”
Saine had 17 points in only 22 minutes and Burris added 11 points off the bench in 20 minutes. Saine picked up his third foul with 12:30 left and it was Grayson providing 16 minutes of grit off the bench in his stead. In the second half alone, he poked away a perimeter pass and made two free throws after being fouled in transition, won WSU a possession on a held ball against Wisne the center, and made the big jumper with 3:13 left.
“When he made that, I just shook my head and laughed because that’s him,” Duft said about Grayson. “He has no fear in him. … He’s just hooping. Free throws, the steal was incredible, just outruns and fights the guy for the ball.”
Vartiainen scored nine points, making one of WSU’s three 3-pointers, and Malek Gomma added eight points and seven rebounds.
Wisne and Denker each scored 17 for Northern Colorado (11-6), now stunningly 1-3 in league play after getting to 10 wins in the nonconference slate with the Big Sky’s best offense. Denker had six assists. Bloch, a 50% 3-point shooter this season (55 of 110 entering Saturday) was 0 of 3 in the game and scored four points.
WSU came out of the gate with more energy on both ends and Whiting factored in several plays. He dished to Burris for a dunk, then gathered a steal that led to Saine scoring a three-point play in transition; the latter put WSU up 23-12 midway through the first half.
Northern Colorado’s only 3-pointer came there, an important make from Ibu Yamazaki to stop Weber’s run and get the Bears to push back. NoCo forced WSU’s first turnovers of the game in succession with 6 minutes left in the half and, despite a Whiting 3-pointer to end a NoCo run (all three of WSU’s 3s came in the first half), the Bears kept the momentum and led 37-34 at the half.
Weber State returns home to face Eastern Washington (3-13, 1-2) on Thursday and Idaho (10-6, 2-1) on Saturday. EWU and Idaho handed Montana and Montana State, respectively, their first conference losses Saturday.
