Two games in, Weber State women’s basketball seems to have that kind of instant heat.

Sophomore guard Grace Hintz scored 22 points in 30 minutes off the bench, helping Weber State to a 64-51 victory over Denver on Saturday evening at the Dee Events Center.

Denver held a 6-5 lead 4 minutes into the first quarter, but Hintz and a bench crew instantly created the space Weber State would enjoy the rest of the way. Hintz scored in the paint to take the lead (WSU never trailed again), backup point guard Siena Guttadauro scored all five of her points next, and Hintz finished an 11-0 run with a 3-pointer to give WSU a 16-6 lead.

Hintz scored 16 points in the first half and WSU lead 32-24 at the break. For the game, she shot 7 of 11 from the field, 2 of 2 from distance and 6 of 6 at the foul line, adding a team-high eight rebounds.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

“I’m going to try and get as many O-boards, D-boards, steals and hopefully that’s going to fuel my offense,” Hintz said about her focus. “And obviously, I do love to score the ball. … I’m going to have that aggressive mindset of give me the ball, I want to shoot … but my teammates make that easy because we have a lot of 3-point shooters, a lot of scorers.”

Hintz spent a year out of the rotation at Montana State before entering the portal and has already been the player fourth-year head coach Jenteal Jackson hoped for when recruiting her. Hintz also scored 17 points in Tuesday’s season-opening win over Westminster.

“I’m just proud of the way she’s showing up,” Jackson said. “Having that whole year off games is tough to come back and be game-ready, but she’s just an extremely hard worker. She lives in the gym … and can score in a lot of different ways.”

Montana transfer guard Draya Wacker played a key role around the final quarter break. Denver had the deficit to 46-39 before Wacker hit a tough, fading wing 3 at the buzzer for a 49-39 score after three.

Four WSU free throws pushed that to 53-39 before the Wildcats caught a turnover bug, turning in poor offensive possessions while the Pioneers got it back to single digits on a Laia Monclova 3.

NATHAN MICHEL, Weber State Athletics

Wacker ended a field goal drought that lasted 4:20 of game time with another tough 3, a stepback near the right wing that restored order for the Wildcats. Hintz then scored on a backdoor cut to make it 58-44 and the rest was elementary.

Wacker and starting forward Paris Lauro each scored 10 points for the Wildcats; Lauro had WSU’s first five points before Hintz helped get things rolling, and finished a team-high plus-19 in the plus-minus margin. Starting point guard Sydney White totaled eight points, six assists and two steals.

Weber State held Denver to 13 of 49 (26.5%) from the field. Hintz said players recently met together to discuss their identity, or what it was they wanted to fall back on when nothing else went right.

“Demand defense,” Hintz said.

Weber did, however, put the Pioneers at the line all night. Denver finished 23 of 28 at the charity stripe.

Jackson said she thought that was largely a result of poor decision-making after playing tough for a possession, rather than a give-and-take aggressiveness that comes with holding an opponent below 30% shooting.

“I thought we were locked in defensively to what Denver wants to do, scout was good … I thought we kind of gave up some cheap ones. Not necessarily within their offense, just us making errors … hitting their hand, we had some bad fouls where it was just mental lapses, to me, at the rim.”

Guard Victoria Baker scored 18 to lead Denver, including an 11-of-12 mark at the foul line, and forward Brooke Murrell added 11 points and 11 rebounds.

After a 2-0 start, WSU remains home for two more contests, hosting Houston Christian on Saturday, Nov. 14 and Northern New Mexico at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 16.