Weber State men’s basketball opens Big Sky play with 81-72 win over Northern Colorado | News, Sports, Jobs

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Weber State forward Dillon Jones (2) drives against Northern Colorado’s Connor Creech on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State guard Steven Verplancken Jr. (11) drives past Northern Colorado’s Riley Abercrombie, right, on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State center Handje Tamba (32) battles for a rebound against Northern Colorado’s Brock Wisne on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State guard Zahir Porter (0) readies to shoot as Northern Colorado’s Matt Johnson II (2) gives chase on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State wing Dyson Koehler (4) rises to shoot against Northern Colorado’s Riley Abercrombie on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State guard Steven Verplancken Jr. (11) drives past Northern Colorado’s Riley Abercrombie, right, on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State center Alex Tew (20) shoots over Northern Colorado’s Brock Wisne (14) on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State forward Dillon Jones (2) drives against Northern Colorado’s Connor Creech on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

Weber State guard Steven Verplancken Jr. (11) drives past Northern Colorado’s Riley Abercrombie, right, on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

Weber State center Handje Tamba (32) battles for a rebound against Northern Colorado’s Brock Wisne on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.


Weber State guard Zahir Porter (0) readies to shoot as Northern Colorado’s Matt Johnson II (2) gives chase on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

Weber State wing Dyson Koehler (4) rises to shoot against Northern Colorado’s Riley Abercrombie on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

Weber State guard Steven Verplancken Jr. (11) drives past Northern Colorado’s Riley Abercrombie, right, on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.


Weber State center Alex Tew (20) shoots over Northern Colorado’s Brock Wisne (14) on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

OGDEN — Dillon Jones seemed to be polishing off both a great individual and team performance Thursday night when he drove for a three-point play to put Weber State men’s basketball up 60-38 with 11:30 left.

But Northern Colorado is a side seemingly built out of a random team generator each night. The Bears, who have a loss to a Division II team and a win at Colorado State this season, got hot like they can and burst to a 17-0 run in 3 1/2 minutes to make it 60-55.

Daylen Kountz, NoCo’s scoring ace, had a mercurial night (two points in the first half, 16 in the second) and capped it with an and-one drive to cut it to 70-65 with 2:20 left.

That’s when Jones — 1 of 5 from deep with some tough round-and-outs to that point — drilled his biggest field goal of the game. He took a pass from Dyson Koehler out of the high post and immediately pulled the trigger, barely tickling the net on a pure 3-pointer to help seal what became an 81-72 victory for Weber State to open Big Sky Conference play.

Jones hit five 3-pointers in a game at NoCo last season (for his previous career-high of 24 points) and noticed the Bears still didn’t have much interest in sticking on him at the 3-point line.

“Coach (Eric) Fragrance and everybody was just like ‘shoot the next one,'” Jones said. “(The defender) was back and I just shot it. That shot went in because of the thousand shots I made this week.”

Jones finished with a career-high 26 points, adding 13 rebounds and six assists, and shot 14 of 15 from the foul line. After his big triple, Jones (4 of 4), KJ Cunningham (2 of 2) and Steven Verplancken Jr. (2 of 2) combined to shoot 8 of 8 from the free-throw line in the final minute to secure the win.

Jones, a third-year forward, reached 605 career rebounds, moving him into 13th place all-time at WSU.

Verplancken totaled 15 points and five rebounds for Weber State (6-8, 1-0 Big Sky). Alex Tew chipped in 10 points and five rebounds in the middle, and Koehler and Zahir Porter each added eight points.

Dalton Knecht led Northern Colorado (5-8, 0-1) with 22 points.

Fragrance credited the game plan to scouting from assistant coach Dan Russell.

“We were really locked in the last two days,” Fragrance said. “We changed quite a bit of stuff for this game and told our team ‘this is what we’ve got to be. We’ve got to be a team that can adapt.’”

To the point that Weber led by 22, it had held an offensively talented Northern Colorado team to 38 points in 28 minutes. Porter and Cunningham put together solid defensive nights while often drawing defensive matchups that saw either give up size or height, and freshman center Handje Tamba added two rebounds and an emphatic block, going plus-15 in the plus-minus ledger over 8 minutes.

“Zahir was very active, got some deflections … he’s really bought into it and we’re plugging him in wherever we need him,” Duft said. “Tamba was really good rim protection tonight. He played well… and defensively, KJ hardly makes a mistake. I told the guys after the game, it’s always a team effort. Different guys step up and do different things on different nights, and I thought this team, we did that tonight.”

WSU led 37-28 at the break after an incisive Jones drive for a layup to beat the halftime buzzer. Out of halftime, the Wildcats went on a 23-10 run that saw Tew whip a clean dish from the foul line to Koehler at the rim for a layup, a Dirk Nowitzki-esque post fadeaway from Verplancken, and Jones dishing to Tamba inside for a dunk

After Northern Colorado’s 17-0 rally made a blowout into a game again — thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from Caleb Shaw — Jones shot 4 of 4 from the foul line on one possession after being undercut on a rebound that was ruled a flagrant foul upon video review, helping the Wildcats withstand the push.

Weber State next hosts Northern Arizona at 2 pm Saturday.

N. COLORADO 67, WEBER STATE 39

Weber State women’s basketball opened its Big Sky slate with a road game at Northern Colorado and took a full quarterback to return from a holiday break: the Bears flattened the Wildcats 25-5 in the first quarter and WSU couldn’t make a dent from there .

Northern Colorado (8-4, 1-0 Big Sky) had four players in double figures, led by 12 points and nine assists from Averee Kleinhans.

Jadyn Matthews led Weber State (4-9, 0-1) with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting and four blocks. The rest of the Wildcats shot 5 of 35.

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