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Weber State guard Tijan Saine Jr. (3) pushes a shot against Eastern Washington's Elijah Thomas in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Ethan Herrick, WSU Athletics

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Weber State forward Nigel Burris (5) rises to shoot past Eastern Washington's Emmett Marquardt (33) in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Keith Webber, for Big Sky Conference

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Weber State center Malek Gomma, left, posts up against Eastern Washington's JoJo Anderson in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Keith Webber, for Big Sky Conference

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Weber State guard Trevor Hennig rises to shoot against Eastern Washington in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Keith Webber, for Big Sky Conference

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Weber State guard Tijan Saine Jr. (3) drives against Eastern Washington in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Keith Webber, for Big Sky Conference

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Weber State guard ArDarius Grayson, left, drives against Eastern Washington in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Ethan Herrick, WSU Athletics

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Weber State men's basketball head coach Eric Duft looks on during a Big Sky quarterfinal against Eastern Washington on Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Keith Webber, for Big Sky Conference

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Weber State guard Trevor Hennig (6) handles the basketball in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Ethan Herrick, WSU Athletics

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Weber State guard Tijan Saine Jr. (3) drives against Eastern Washington in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Keith Webber, for Big Sky Conference

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Weber State guard ArDarius Grayson (12) rises to shoot over Eastern Washington's Johnny Radford (21) in a Big Sky quarterfinal Monday, March 9, 2026, at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

Ethan Herrick, WSU Athletics

❮ ❯

Basketball isn’t always a game of runs, but when it is, the largest run wins.

Such was the case late Monday when No. 6 Weber State saw its season come to a close against No. 3 Eastern Washington in the Big Sky Conference quarterfinals at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

It was an 84-79 defeat that well-encapsulated WSU’s season, which finishes 16-16 overall and 10-9 against Big Sky teams — much improved from the lows of last year but almost perfectly average in the end.

The largest run was 19-1 in favor of Eastern Washington, now winners in nine of their last 10 contests, to overwhelm Weber State in the final 6 minutes of the first half. The Eagles capped that on a deep Johnny Radford running 3-pointer at the buzzer to lead 46-32 at halftime, a salt-in-wound shot that ended up making a big difference at the end of the game.

Eastern Washington’s stars came to play. Senior forward Alton Hamilton IV scored 18 of his career-high 25 in the first half. Senior guard Isaiah Moses scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half, all important as WSU eventually made runs, and dished eight assists as well.

Junior guard Tijan Saine Jr. came to play for WSU as well. He scored 10 points in the game’s first 5 minutes and willed himself to the free-throw line late, finishing with 27 points.

The Wildcats had the runs in the second half, starting with a 9-0 burst out of halftime to get right back into the game with a Saine backcourt steal and layup, a Viljami Vartiainen 3-pointer and four Nigel Burris free throws to make it 46-41.

Moses hit a pair of 3s to stall Weber’s momentum and the teams traded baskets on eight straight possessions to repeatedly swing the margin from six to eight over the space of 5 minutes. But when Eastern (14-18), the league’s hottest team, pushed its lead back to 68-56 with 8:45 left, it seemed WSU might be out of luck.

But Weber soon had a 10-0 run to close the gap. Burris drove for a dunk and Vartiainen took a steal for a layup to make it 68-66 with 5:30 left.

It appeared to be a 12-0 rally when Saine drove the paint and scored with contact, drawing a chance to take the lead at the free-throw line. But the call went against WSU center Malek Gomma for screening EWU center Kiree Huie into Saine to cause the contact, taking some air out of the comeback.

Saine scored 12 of WSU’s final 19 points, including eight free throws. But Hamilton, a 34% 3-point shooter, reached his career-high with a straightaway 3 (he was 2 for 2) to put his team up 77-72 with 1:50 left.

Despite Saine’s will, Moses had his final say, too, putting freshman defender Duce Paschal in a blender on a clock-milking drive for a three-point play and an 82-76 lead with 37.3 remaining.

WSU followed a Saine drive by forcing a five-second inbound violation turnover, but a tough Trevor Hennig drive bounced out and Paschal made only 1 of 2 at the line after a rebound foul. That doomed any chance of a miracle from there.

Weber began the game with an early 10-1 run as Saine knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and got the Wildcats to a 16-7 lead at the first media timeout.

WSU made 8 of its first 11 field goal attempts and only Hamilton and a few second-chance baskets had the Eagles staying close. But Eastern Washington changed to a zone defense midway through the half — daringly, considering Vartiainen shot 47% from 3 in Big Sky games and Saine had a 42% stretch in the first 13 games of league play.

But it worked. The Wildcats played stagnant, stand-around offense and Vartiainen, even when given open looks, made only 2 of his first 10 3-point attempts.

A long series of WSU’s unenergetic offensive possessions helped Eastern Washington build momentum. Though a Jace Whiting floater gave WSU a 31-27 lead with 6:20 left in the first half, it was one of just a few field goals in the closing 10 minutes.

Hamilton paint buckets gave way to Elijah Thomas, Moses and Radford knocking down 3s in the final 3 minutes to send WSU reeling into the locker room down 14 on the wrong side of a 19-1 run.

Weber State’s two runs in the second half combined for a 19-0 margin, and the Wildcats scored 47 second-half points, but Moses and Hamilton made the big buckets Eastern needed to finish the victory.

Whiting got back on the court for the first time since Jan. 17, missing 12 games due to a foot injury. But his impact for Weber State was not the same after his prolonged absence; he totaled two points and two rebounds in 15 minutes and was minus-14 in the plus-minus margin.

In his final college game, Burris totaled 14 points and three rebounds for Weber State. Vartiainen added 13 points. Malek Gomma totaled five points and a team-high eight rebounds.

The Wildcats have gone 10 years since their last tournament title and now have a nine-year drought since their last appearance in the tournament championship game.

WSU enters the offseason losing only Burris as a senior, with the unpredictability of NIL and the transfer portal having a yet-to-be-told impact on if the Wildcats can build around Saine, Vartiainen and five would-be seniors, and how any larger influence from Damian Lillard’s general manager role might or might not be leveraged this spring.

Players can officially enter their names into the transfer portal from April 7-21.

Weber currently has one 2026 player committed in 6-foot-6 guard Kaleb Jackson, with Utahns Tiger Cuff and Hunter Hansen returning from missionary service. That would put WSU at the roster limit of 15 (the Wildcats had 13 scholarship players and two walk-ons this year but the new scholarship limit is 15), absent any other changes.