Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Idaho
Wildcats begin road trip Thursday at Idaho
1/25/2023 9:24:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Weber State is 5-2 in Big Sky play. The Wildcats will play their next four games on the road.
• Weber State begins a four-game road trip starting Thursday night at the University of Idaho in Moscow. The Wildcats and Vandals will tipoff at 6 p.m. Pacific time (7 p.m. Mountain time) from the ICCU Arena in Moscow. The game will be televised on ESPN+ with WSU radio coverage with Steve Klauke on 103.1 FM "The Wave". Live stats at WeberStateSports.com.
• Weber State is 10-10 overall and 5-2 in Big Sky play. The Wildcats are coming off two home victories last week, an 84-68 win over Portland State on Thursday and a 50-48 win over Sacramento State on Saturday.
• Idaho is 8-13 overall and 2-6 in conference play. The Vandals lead the Big Sky and are 27th in the country in field goal percentage at 48.2 percent. Idaho also has two of the top three leading scorers in the Big Sky.
• For the third time this season, Weber State standout Dillon Jones has been named the Big Sky Player of the Week. Jones earned the honor after his two double-doubles in leading the Wildcats to a pair of home wins last week.
He averaged 17.5 points, 14.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 52 percent from the field in the two wins over Portland State and Sacramento State.
He had 17 points, 14 rebounds, tied his career-high with eight assists, and had three steals in Thursday's 84-68 win over Portland State. He followed that up with 18 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, and a steal in Saturday's 50-48 win over Sacramento State. He also scored the game-winning layup with six seconds left in the game.
Jones, a sophomore out of Columbia, South Carolina, has 11 double-doubles on the season, which currently rank as the sixth most in the nation. He leads the country in defensive rebounds at 10.2 per game. He is fifth in the nation in overall rebounding at 10.9 per game.
He leads Weber State in scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals. He is fourth in the Big Sky in assists at 3.9 per game and ranks third in steals at 1.6.
He has scored in double figures 15 times, including 13 of the last 14 games. He also has had 10 or more rebounds in six of the last seven games. Jones also ranks ninth in WSU history in career rebounds with 691 rebounds in 75 career games.
This is the sixth career Big Sky Player of the Week honor for Jones, including three this season.
• Dyson Koehler tied his season-high with 12 points in Saturday's win. He was 4 of 5 from the field, including two 3-pointers and grabbed five rebounds and had two steals. Koehler has played in 17 games this season and started 14 games after missing most of the summer and early part of the season due to injuries. He is averaging 5.4 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
• Steven Verplancken scored in double figures for the 16th time in 20 games this season, including 10 of the last 11 games as he finished with 10 points in Saturday's win over Sacramento State. On the season the junior from San Pedro, Dominican Republic is averaging 12.7 points per game and is shooting 42.3 percent from 3-point range. He ranks eighth in the Big Sky in 3-pointers made per game at 2.1.
• In Saturday's win, Weber State scored a season-low 50 points, the fewest points in a victory since 1990. The 48 points allowed was the second-lowest total of the season. The Wildcat defense held Sacramento State to 29.1 percent shooting, including just 5 of 26 from 3-point range. The 29 percent is the lowest shooting percentage by a Division I opponent since February 2013 against Southern Utah.
On the season, the Wildcats are second in the Big Sky in scoring defense at 66.6 points per game. WSU ranks sixth in field goal defense and seventh in 3-point field goal defense.
• Weber State is led by new head coach Eric Duft who was named the 10th head coach in Weber State history in May. Duft replaced Randy Rahe who retired after 16 seasons as the head coach as the Big Sky Conference's all-time leader in career wins and led the Wildcats to five Big Sky titles and three trips to the NCAA Tournament. Duft spent all 16 seasons as an assistant coach under Rahe.
• Idaho started the Big Sky season with five-straight losses but have since won two of the last three games, including a home win over Montana State. The Vandals leads the conference in field goal percentage and rank 27th in the country at 48.2 percent. The Vandals are second in scoring offense at 75.9 points per game, third in scoring margin and third in 3-point percentage at 35.4 percent.
• The Vandals are coached by Zac Claus who is in his fourth season as head coach. Idaho has two of the top three individual scorers in the Big Sky. Isaac Jones is second at 19.1 points per game and Divant'e Moffitt is third at 18.6 points a game. Jones lead the league in field goal percentage and blocks and is fifth in rebounding, while Moffitt is second in the conference in assists.
• This will be the 87th all-time meeting between the two schools, who are both charter members of the Big Sky Conference. Weber State holds a 61-25 all-time series lead over Idaho. The Wildcats are 9-5 against the Vandals since Idaho rejoined the conference in 2015. Weber State had won seven-straight games before Idaho beat the Wildcats in Moscow last season.
Overall in games in Moscow, Weber State is 25-18 all-time but is 4-4 since Idaho came back to the Big Sky.
• Weber State continues its road trip Saturday at league-leading Eastern Washington. Tipoff in Cheney will be 2 p.m. Pacific time (3 p.m. Mountain time).
