Tuesday night, the Weber State University men’s basketball team took on the Benedictine University Redhawks at home in the Dee Events Center. The Wildcats cruised to a 100–61 victory, shooting 53 percent from the field with 14 three-pointers.
Senior forward Brekkott Chapman ended the contest with a game-high 18 points, going 6–7 from the three-point line in just 23 minutes.
Senior Zach Braxton finished with a game-high 15 rebounds and added 8 points in 18 minutes. The 15 rebounds are also a career high for Braxton.
“We have come a long way getting the ball moving, and the offense is starting to flow really well,” Chapman said. “We have been scoring a lot more points, and we get a lot more open looks, which is getting our percentages up, making our offense more efficient.”
Chapman said after his third three of the night, he was on a hot streak. WSU head coach Randy Rahe said Chapman put in extra practice time the week prior.
Benedictine University at Mesa is part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) but not a part of the NCAA. This is Weber State’s second win this season against an NAIA team.
The ‘Cats got off to a quick start, scoring 25 points in the first seven minutes. The Wildcats slowed and the teams went even the rest of the half with a halftime score of 45-25.
Rahe asked his team to come out in the second half with more intensity.
“We kind of got our rhythm going, now let’s go do everything a little bit faster, little bit harder, with a little more juice,” Rahe said. “Let’s guard with a little more juice, let’s get our offence moving with a little more juice and make the extra pass.”
In the first five minutes of the second half, the offense and defense was clicking. Chapman hit two threes to help Weber State go on a 19–2 run. On the offensive, Weber State continued to run fast and pushed the ball.
The Wildcats kept the pedal down, holding the Redhawks to 36 points the rest of the second half and scoring 55 points. The Cats’ defense stepped up, holding Benedictine to just 32 percent shooting on the night.
The Wildcats will host another game this Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. Weber State will welcome BYU, to whom they lost last year by six points.
“We are excited about it. We love in-state games,” Rahe said. “We embrace them. It doesn’t matter if we are playing at home, the road, at Vivint — it doesn’t matter. We just love the in-state games, and we are really fortunate to have BYU coming here to play us on Saturday on our home court.”
Following the BYU matchup, the next four games will be the last non-conference games for the Wildcats. Two of the contests will be against in-state rivals Utah State University and Utah Valley University.
