Weber State University Athletics
Wildcats Host the University of San Francisco Dons In the Final Non-Conference Game of the Year
12/26/2007 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO "Dons"
HEAD COACH JESSIE EVANS
JESSIE EVANS is in his 4th season as head coach of the Dons. ... Coming into Friday's game in Ogden, Evans is 45-57 (.441) overall at USF and 163-137 (.543) in his 11th year overall as a head coach. The game @Notre Dame last Saturday (Dec. 22) was his 300th career game. ... Prior to his stint at USF, Evans spent seven years as the head coach at Louisiana-Lafayette. ... Evans served as an assistant coach at Minnesota (1976-81), San Diego State (1981-83), Wyoming (1984-86) and Arizona (1988-97). ... Evans is 1-0 overall vs. Weber State.
SERIES HISTORY
Friday's match up will be the 5th meeting ever between the two teams and the second meeting of the year. ... USF holds a 3-1 advantage in the series. ... The first ever meeting came in 1969-70 in the first round of the Cable Car Classic in San Francisco. The Wildcats won that one 79-65. ... In 1971-72 the two teams met in Provo, Utah in the consolation game of the NCAA West Regional. USF won that game 74-64. ... In 1998-99 the Don's beat the Wildcats 67-60 in the championship game of the Northwestern Mutual Classic hosted by USF and on Dec. 8 of this year the Dons won 67-65 at home.
LAST MEETING: Dec. 8, 2007 @USF
MANNY QUEZADA's two free throws with 11 seconds left lifted the Don's to a 67-65 win over the Wildcats. WSU's KELLEN McCOY made a short jumper in the lane as time expired brings the ?Cats to within two. ... The Wildcats did everything right, except in the TURNOVER department. WSU shot 57 percent (20-35) from the field including 8-15 from the three-point line and made 17-22 (.773) from the line. The Wildcats out rebounded the Dons 26-24 and held them to just 21-49 (.429) from the field. But the season-high 25 turnovers by the Wildcats led to their undoing. ... The game was tied 29-29 at halftime and see-sawed in the second half. WSU's last lead came with 2;16 remaining when ARTURAS VALEIKA made one of two free throws putting the ?Cats up 57-56. ... USF went ahead for good on its next possession when DANNY CAVIC hit a big three-pointer at the 1:49 mark and with just nine seconds left on the shot clock making it 59-57. ... JUAN PABLO SILVEIRA missed a three with 1:37 left and on the rebound VALEIKA fouled DIOR LOWHORN. Lowhorn, a 60 percent free throw shooter coming into the game made both tosses putting USF up by four, then made two more in a row with 42 seconds remaining giving his team a six point lead. ... Freshman center TREVOR MORRIS made good on an old-fashion three point play with 32 seconds left cutting the margin back to 63-60. ... USF's MYRON STRONG and CHRISTIAN HERNANDEZ each made one of two free throws following Morris' scoring. Hernandez's last toss came with 22 seconds left making it 65-60. ... TYLER BILLINGS then came down and launched a long three-pointer which found the hoop and suddenly the Wildcats were within two at 65-63 with 12 seconds left setting up QUEZADA's free throws. ... VALEIKA led the Wildcats with 13 points and nine rebounds. SILVEIRA and McCOY each added 12. ... USF was led by freshman guard MYRON STRONG who had 16 and QUEZADA added 15.
VS. WEST COAST CONFERENCE
The Wildcats have done battle with every team in the WCC at one time or another. ... One WCC member, Gonzaga, was a charter member of the Big Sky Conference as a basketball-only member. The Zags left the Big Sky after the 1978-79 season to join the then WCAC. ... WSU is a combined 53-20 (.726) against teams which currently make up the WCC. ... SAN FRANCISCO is the only WCC team which HAS NOT PLAYED a game vs. Weber State in Ogden.
SCOUTING THE DONS
USF comes into Friday's game vs. Weber State with an overall record of 4-8. The Don's will play @Utah Valley State on Dec. 31 to complete a two-game swing into Utah. . . . The Dons have dropped three straight games since beating the Wildcats 67-65 at home on December 8. They lost road games @ UC-Irvine (59-72 Dec. 15) and Long Beach State (68-71, Dec. 18) and dropped a 76-84 contest @Notre Dame on Saturday, Dec. 22. . . . USF is 0-6 in road games this season. . . . USF is led by 6-7, 230 sophomore forward DIOR LOWHORN. Lowhorn averages 20.9 points and 7.3 rebounds and is shooting just under 50 percent from the field. Lowhorn came to USF after playing his freshman year at Texas Tech in 2005-06 where he averaged 7.2 points and 3.9 rebounds for Coach Bob Knight. ... The Dons have a strong back court with MANNY QUEZADA (6-2, 185 Jr.) and a really promising first-year freshman MYRON STRONG (6-2, 185). Quezada is averaging 17.6 points and 4.1 assists per game, along with shooting 40-48 (.833) from the free throw line. Strong averages 13.3 points and 3.9 assists. . . . USF averages 71.7 points per game but is giving up 76.6. . . . USF's pressing defense is forcing 18.3 turnovers a game, and they average 12.1 OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS per contest giving them many second chance points.
WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY "Wildcats"
HEAD COACH RANDY RAHE
In his first season at Weber State RANDY RAHE set the bar high. He took the a team which was 10-17 the year previous and molded them into a 20-12 team in 2006-07.. The Wildcats were picked to finish 6th in the Big Sky Conference pre-season coaches and media polls, but Rahe and the Wildcats rose to the top to finish league play 11-5 and tied with Northern Arizona for the regular season crown. But the Wildcats won the tie-breaker by virtue of their in-season sweep of the Lumberjacks. The 'Cats went on to beat NAU in the finals of the Conference Tournament and earned the automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. ... For those efforts, Rahe was named BIG SKY CONFERENCE COACH OF THE YEAR and the USBWA DISTRICT VIII COACH OF THE YEAR. ... Rahe is now 24-19 (.558) overall at Weber State and as a head coach. ... Rahe is 0-1 vs. USF and 2-1 vs. teams from the WCC.
RADIO /T V
Friday's game will be broadcast LIVE on KLO radio (1430 AM) with CARL ARKY calling the action and former Utah State head coach and former WSU athletic director DUTCH BELNAP, providing color commentary. ... The Pre-Game Show begins at 6;30 p.m. (MST).
A QUICK WSU HISTORY LESSON
The Wildcats begin their 46th season as a four-year institution on the NCAA Division I level and their 45th season as a member of the Big Sky Conference. ... In 1962-63 Weber became the first junior college in the country to moved from the juco ranks directly into NCAA Division I basketball. ... Since then, the Wildcats have won 17 Big Sky Conference titles and made 15 appearances in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
ALL-TIME RECORD
Weber State's all-time record in Division I basketball stands at 820-478 (.6317). ... That's an average of 18.13 wins per season. ... In 45 years of hoop action the Wildcats have had just EIGHT LOSING SEASONS and in 21 of those 45 seasons have posted 20 WINS OR BETTER!.
HOME SWEET HOME
THE DEE EVENTS CENTER CELEBRATES ITS 30TH YEAR
The 2007-08 season marks the 30th season of playing in the 12,000 seat Dee Events Center. .... Opened on Nov. 1, 2007, the first regular season basketball game was played on November 29 against Long Beach State with the Wildcats prevailing 99-96 in overtime. .... The 'Cats have enjoyed tremendous success over the years at the DEC. They have an overall record of 332-92 (.783) under the dome including a 13-2 record last season. ... Weber State's overall home court record, counting the 15 seasons in old Swenson Gym is a solid 512-109 (.824). ... The Wildcats were a staggering 180-18 (.909) in Swenson Gym! ... The Wildcats had a 10 game HOME WIN STREAK snapped on Nov. 28 with a 52-72 loss to the University of Utah, but have now started a very modest two-game win streak.
GET THIS ONE BEHIND US
The Sunday, December 23 game at New Mexico was a nightmare for the Wildcats in many ways. They shot a season-low 22.9 percent (11-48) from the field with a season-low first half shooting of just 20 percent (5-25) and a season-low second half shooting of just 26.9 percent 6-23. ... The 32 points scored by the Wildcats is obviously a season low and is the second LOWEST SCORING GAME in WSU basketball history. The lowest was 28 points in 1979-80 but the ?Cats actually won that game 28-22 at Northern Arizona. ... It marked just the fifth time in 1,298 games played by the Wildcats that they failed to score 40 points in a game.
WHEN THE WILDCATS WIN....
The team averages 76.8 points per game and holds opponents to 63.5. . . . They out rebound opponents 30.3 to 26.5. . . . They average 14.25 assists and just 13.75 turnovers. . . . They shoot .541 from the field; .472 (34-72) from the three-point line and .689 from the free throw line. . . . DEZMON HARRIS leads the team in scoring at 12.8. ARTURAS VALEIKA averages 12.0 and STEVE PANOS averages 10.3. ... VALEIKA, PANOS, KELLEN McCOY and DAVIIN DAVIS are all shooting 62 percent or better from the floor in WSU's four victories this season.
WHEN THE WILDCATS LOSE...
The team averages 56.0 points and gives up 70.1. . . . Surprisingly, the Wildcats out rebound opponents 31.0 to 28.9. . . . The team averages just 9.71 assists and 18.57 turnovers per game. . . . They shoot just .405 from the field; .361 (44-122) from the three-point line but shoot .727 (80-110) from the free throw line. . . . ARTURAS VALEIKA is the only player in double figure scoring at 11.0.
ODDS AND ENDS
The Wildcats made a season-low FOUR three-pointers vs. New Mexico and a season-low 10 free throw attempts and a season-low six free throws made. . . . The Wildcats have a 62-point differential in points scored in games this season with 94 vs. Montana-Western and 32 vs. @New Mexico. . . . After shooting a season-high 26-36 (both categories) from the free throw line vs. Montana-Western on Dec. 14, the Wildcats are just 16-25 from the line in the last two games. . . . After scoring in double figures in three straight games, KELLEN McCOY was held scoreless @New Mexico.
NEXT WEEK
Weber State opens its Big Sky Conference title defense run with a Sunday, January 6 game at Northern Colorado. That game tips-off at 2:05 p.m. (MST) and will be televised LIVE on Altitude TV.
RANDY RAHE SPEAKS....
ON SAN FRANCISCO "We did everything right in the first meeting except take care of the ball. There's not too many teams which can commit 25 turnovers and still win. Dior Lowhorn is a tough assignment on the low block. He's got a tremendous shooting touch and is a solid rebounder especially on the offensive glass. The back court of Quezada and Strong is one of the best we've faced this season. They can both score and can both pass."
ON THE WILDCATS: "Obviously we hit a big bump in the road at New Mexico but that's behind us now and we are focused on San Francisco. Our practices on Wednesday night and Thursday will be short and to the point."
