We’ll start with what people are calling “the appetizer”: Montana State at San Jose State.
It was a game between a pair of 2-3 teams in which the Bobcats felt favored: MSU’s losses were to higher quality opponents, as it were, and their lone Division I victory was over Utah, a low Pac-12/former top Mountain West team. SJSU’s lone D-I win was over UC-Irvine by a pint and secure only when a last-second basket was overturned.
MSU took control early with hot outside shooting, hitting 5 of its first 10 3-pointers. The Bobcats took control with an 18-9 run from the first to the second half and built leads of 49-37 and 56-42, but MSU’s lead was frittered away and the game was 65-all on a James Kinney 3. MSU closed the game on a 12-5 run and sank six free throws in the final 30-plus seconds to seal the win.
In the main event, Weber State junior guard Damian Lillard single-handedly tried to keep the Wildcats alive during an 87-70 loss as he tied his career-high with 36 points. He had 26 points in the second half, including scoring 21 straight points for the Wildcats over a 10-minute stretch of action.
The bigger issue was that St. Mary’s shot a blistering 69.2 percent (18-for-26) from the field in the second half, including 71.4 percent (5-of-7) from behind the 3-point arc after shooting just 40.9 percent in the first half. The Gaels closed the first half with an 11-2 run over the final 2:38 for a 32-31 deficit, then used a 28-8 run over a 7:53 span to convert a 52-50 deficit into a 78-60 lead in the second half. Of the 56 points St. Mary’s scored in the second half, 43 came from Rob Jones, Matthew Dellavedova and Kenton Walker II.
The Gaels also went 25-of-34 (73.5 percent) from the foul line, including 15-of-19 in the second half.
St. Mary’s improved to 4-1, Weber state dropped to 4-1, and some around the region are saying this eliminates Weber State’s shot at an at-large berth should it not win the Big Sky.
At face value, it was a terrific game until WSU stopped hitting shots/defending during SMC’s big run. The Wildcats also needed to get more out of Scott Bamforth and Kyle Bullinger than the pair contributed (1-for-8, 5 points) — Kyle Trezniak’s 17 points can’t be what backs up Lillard every time out. Randy Rahe and his club know this. Weber has a couple more opportunities before Big Sky play starts to re-assert itself with games at Cal (potentially good showing/close loss), at BYU and against Utah (probable wins and reign over as the state’s basketball kingpin). But a win at St. Mary’s, or a single-digit loss, would’ve definitely boosted NCAA stock.
