Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
UT Arlington - Sears Bracketbusters
Wildcats win Bracketbusters game 72-70
2/19/2012 1:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OGDEN, Utah - Weber State remained undefeated at home with a 72-70 win over Texas Arlington in the Sears BracketBusters Saturday night at the Dee Events Center. With the win the Wildcats improved to 22-4 overall on the season and have won six straight and 16 of their last 17 games.
UT Arlington jumped out to a 27-24 lead at halftime but the second half was a different story. Weber State jumped out to a quick 16-1 run to start the half. From there the Mavericks had a run of their own cutting the WSU lead back to two points at 45-43 with 12:36 to play. Weber State exploded for another run, this time a 15-1 run over the next 3:30 to take a 16-point lead with 9:00 to play.
The Mavericks came back and cut the lead to five with 4:48 to play then got as close as three with under a minute to play but the Wildcats were able to hang on for the victory.
"We adjusted mentally at halftime and came out much tougher in the second half," said WSU head coach Randy Rahe. "This was a great game between two really good teams and it was a great atmosphere. It was a really hard fought and intense game. We were able to make some key plays down the stretch when it counted."
With the win the 'Cats improve to 15-0 at home this season and have won 16 straight and 23 of their last 24 at the Dee Events Center. Saturday was WSU's final regular season home game. Saturday's game had an attendance of 8,952 fans, the second largest of the season. WSU finished the regular season averaging 6,771 fans.
The Mavericks outshot the Wildcats 45 percent to 43 percent and outrebounded WSU 37-35. Weber State, who leads the nation in free throw percentage, shot just 66 percent from the line. The 'Cats also committed 19 turnovers.
Weber State was 14-34 from three-point land for the night.
Weber State did shoot 56 percent from the field in the second half.
Scott Bamforth led the Wildcats with 19 points. He was 5-12 from the field, all coming on three-point attempts and was also 4-6 from the free throw line and also added four assists.
Damian Lillard, who is now second in the nation in scoring after leading since late November, finished the night with 17 points along with seven rebounds and seven assists. Byron Fulton added 11 points off the bench, all coming in the second half.
It was Senior Night for Darin Mahoney and Kyle Bullinger, playing in their final regular season home game. Mahoney finished with two points but pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds. Bullinger had eight points and became the 26th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points.
Weber State now returns to Big Sky play and will finish the conference season with two road games. The 'Cats will play at Northern Colorado next Thursday and finish the season Feb. 28 at Montana. That game will almost assuredly determine the conference champion and the team that will host the conference tournament.
