The Weber State University men’s basketball team headed up to Logan on Nov. 12, and lost 83–73 to the Utah State University Aggies.
In a game in which the Wildcats were 22.5-point underdogs, no one expected the Wildcats to compete against the Aggies at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. In this arena, the Aggies have a 0.812 winning percentage.
That didn’t faze the Wildcats, as they started the game strong, leading up until the 10-minute mark of the first half.
The second half was a battle, with the two teams exchanging the lead until the end of the half, when the score was tied at 41–41.
However, in the second half, Utah State began to dominate. Since the teams switched which basket they were scoring on each half, Weber now had to play toward Utah State’s student section, “The Hurd”.
The Aggies got their lead up to 14 points, but the Wildcats kept crawling back. However, it wasn’t enough, and the Aggies got the win 83–73.
Despite the loss, there was a lot of good that came from Weber’s play. Sophomore guard Trevor Hennig led both teams in points with 19, along with six rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Nigel Burris, the Wildcats’ sole senior on the team, who played his sophomore season at Utah State, scored 15 points and brought down 12 rebounds.
“I’m upset that we lost, but I thought our team competed really well,” Burris said. “I thought for me, individually, it was a good game that I had, but I got some more work to do. I grew up a little bit, felt more mature.”
While Burris was shooting free throws, “The Hurd” chanted “Aggie Reject” to Burris, but the crowd didn’t get to him.
“We just love to hoop,” Burris said. “We love competing. It doesn’t matter what environment we’re in.”
Head Coach Eric Duft also had a positive outlook on the game. “I didn’t think we blinked. I thought maybe basketball-wise we had some silly things happen, but I was really proud of the way our guys competed and were connected … But not very many teams come in here and compete with these guys, so I was really proud of that,” Duft said.
Weber outrebounded Utah State 40 to 38, their third straight game leading in the rebound category. With their rebounding struggles last season, Duft is proud of his team’s effort on the boards.
“I think our guys feel like they can compete against whoever we play against”, Duft said. “We’ve played a Big-12 team and a top-level Mountain West team that’s probably going to the NCAA Tournament … and we outrebounded both of them … That’s really hard to do.”
After playing the University of California, Irvine on Nov. 15, the Wildcats return home for the “Junction City Jam Tournament”, where they will play Campbell University on Nov. 19 and the University of Texas, Arlington on Nov. 22.
