The Weber State University’s men’s basketball team took a trip down to Salt Lake City, to go up against the University of Utah.
The Utes opened the game with a three-pointer from Keanu Dawes, but the Wildcats continued to stay in the game and not let the Utes’ lead get larger than over four points. Weber cut the Utes’ lead to one point before Nigel Burris made a tip-in shot to produce the Wildcats’ first lead of the game. Weber then went on a 10–0 run to put the score at 24–15 and force the Utes to use another timeout.
The Utes then made a run of their own to erase the deficit the Wildcats created and tied the game back up at 39 apiece. As the game progressed, Weber State responded and took a 49–42 lead into the halftime break.
Utah pushed their way back into the game, but Weber’s ArDarius Grayson made a layup with 15:28 left in the game and held on to a 5-point lead for three minutes as both teams could not score a basket until Viljami Vartiainen made two free throws to extend the lead to seven points for the Wildcats.
Weber was in sole control of the game, obtaining a lead as large as 10 points at 72–62 with seven minutes to go. Utah player Terrence Brown amped up his game and began to torch the Wildcats in the paint in the second half, lift his scoring tally through the roof. The Utes were able to get the score to an 83–81 deficit with 12 seconds to go.
Weber then inbounded the ball to guard Trevor Henning, who was intentionally fouled and sent to the free-throw line to shoot two. Henning made the first, and then missed the second to give the Utes a chance to tie the game. Brown dribbled the ball down the court in a hurry and got an open look for teammate Don McHenry, who swished the 3-pointer from the right-hand corner to tie up the game and send it to overtime.
In overtime, the momentum had shifted back to the home team. Brown continued to do his thing and ended the game with 36 points. McHenry ended with 26 and pushed their team to a victory, winning 92–89. Weber’s top scorers were Jace Whiting with 15 points, and both Trevor Henning and Malek Gomma with 14 points each.
“I thought we competed really hard and played the way we wanted to play … the only aspect they outplayed us was on the free throw line,” Head Coach Eric Duft said.
The Wildcats shot 17–28 from the free-throw line, while the Utes shot 21–32. Weber will travel next week on Nov. 12 to Logan, to play against Utah State University.
