Weber State University Athletics
Saturday, December 7
Grand Forks, N.D.
6:00 p.m. MT
Weber State University
at
North Dakota
Wildcats head to North Dakota Saturday night
12/6/2024 3:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Weber State takes on old rival North Dakota Saturday in the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge.
• Weber State continues play in the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge as the Wildcats hit the road to take on an old rival Saturday night, taking on the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
• The Wildcats and Fighting Hawks will tipoff at 7:00 p.m. Central time (6 p.m. Mountain time) on Saturday night from the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks. The game will be televised on the Summit League Network and Midco Sports. A subscription is required to watch.
The Weber State radio broadcast will be on 103.1 FM "The Wave" with Carl Arky on the call.
Live stats are available at WeberStateSports.com and the Weber State Wildcats app.
• This is the second year for the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge. All 10 Big Sky teams and all nine Summit League teams will compete in the challenge, with most teams playing two games.
Teams will be playing for a combined trophy with results from both the men's and women's games, totaling 36 games. Teams get one point for a home win and 1.5 points for a road win. The Summit League won last year via a tiebreaker.
The point total is tied 10.5-10.5 after Wednesday's games.
• Weber State is 4-5 on the season. The Wildcats are coming off a 77-73 home loss to North Dakota State on Wednesday night at the Dee Events Center in the first game of the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge. NDSU jumped out to a 20-point lead seven minutes into the game, before Weber State rallied back. The Wildcats cut the lead to as little as three points late in the game before the Bison pulled away.
• In Wednesday's game, Weber State sophomore Viljami Vartiainen had a career-high 18 points and knocked down four 3-pointers coming off the bench for the Wildcats. He was 5 of 8 from the field and had three 3-pointers in the second half.
Vartiainen is fourth on the Wildcat team in scoring at 8.8 points per game and ranks sixth in the Big Sky in 3-pointers per game at 2.3.
• Senior center Alex Tew had a season-high 12 points against the Bison. He was also 5 of 8 from the field and grabbed five rebounds. Tew ranks third in the Big Sky in blocks at 1.4 per game. He has played in 102 games in his WSU career.
• Through nine games, Weber State senior Blaise Threatt leads the Wildcats at 17.3 points per game. He has led WSU in scoring six times this season and reached double figures in all nine games and scored 20 or more three times.
Threatt ranks third in the Big Sky in scoring and is first in assist to turnover ratio at 3.5. He is also second in the league in steals, fourth in assists, fourth in minutes played, and sixth in field goal percentage.
• The Wildcats are coached by Eric Duft who returns for his third season as head coach and his 19th season overall at Weber State. He spent 16 seasons as an assistant coach under Randy Rahe before becoming the 10th head coach in WSU history in May 2022.
• Weber State was picked third in the Big Sky preseason media poll and fourth in the coaches poll.
• Weber State has nine players coming from six different countries on this year's roster. The 'Cats have three players from Canada, two from Serbia, and one each from England, Finland, Montenegro, and Japan.
• North Dakota enters Saturday's game with a 3-5 record. They started out with a loss at Colorado State, then beat Dickinson State and Utah Valley. They also have a win at Loyola Marymount. They have lost their last three games, including an 87-81 loss at Eastern Washington on Wednesday night as part of the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge.
• North Dakota was 18-14 overall last season and finished in a tie for second in the Summit League at 10-6. The Fighting Hawks were picked to finish sixth in this year's preseason coaches poll. Paul Sather is in his sixth season as head coach at UND.
• This game will be a reunion of two former Big Sky Conference opponents. North Dakota was a member of the Big Sky Conference from 2013-18. The two teams met 15 times in that span with Weber State holding a 10-5 series lead. Weber State won the first eight games of the series but UND was 5-2 after that.
The last meeting was on February 8, 2018 in Ogden, a 84-76 WSU win, which snapped a four game UND winning streak. The two teams met four times in the Big Sky Tournament over the six year span. Weber State won in the semifinals in 2013 and beat UND is the championship game in 2014 in Ogden. The 'Cats won in the semifinals in 2016 but lost in the championship game in 2017 in Reno.
In games in Grand Forks, the series is tied 3-3 all-time. Weber State won the first three and the Fighting Hawks won the last three games.
• Weber State has a rich basketball tradition and boasts the 26th best winning percentage in college basketball history. WSU has won 22 Big Sky Championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament 16 times. The 'Cats have six tournament wins, including a win over North Carolina in 1999. Weber State also boasts several players professionally, including NBA superstar Damian Lillard who played four years at Weber State from 2008-12, and Dillon Jones who was drafted this year. Jones finished his career as Weber State's all-time leader in steals, and ranks second in assists, third in rebounding and fifth in scoring.
• After Saturday, Weber State will have just one game next week, an instate battle at Utah Tech on Friday, December 13, before returning home for two games the following week.
• The Wildcats and Fighting Hawks will tipoff at 7:00 p.m. Central time (6 p.m. Mountain time) on Saturday night from the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks. The game will be televised on the Summit League Network and Midco Sports. A subscription is required to watch.
The Weber State radio broadcast will be on 103.1 FM "The Wave" with Carl Arky on the call.
Live stats are available at WeberStateSports.com and the Weber State Wildcats app.
• This is the second year for the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge. All 10 Big Sky teams and all nine Summit League teams will compete in the challenge, with most teams playing two games.
Teams will be playing for a combined trophy with results from both the men's and women's games, totaling 36 games. Teams get one point for a home win and 1.5 points for a road win. The Summit League won last year via a tiebreaker.
The point total is tied 10.5-10.5 after Wednesday's games.
• Weber State is 4-5 on the season. The Wildcats are coming off a 77-73 home loss to North Dakota State on Wednesday night at the Dee Events Center in the first game of the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge. NDSU jumped out to a 20-point lead seven minutes into the game, before Weber State rallied back. The Wildcats cut the lead to as little as three points late in the game before the Bison pulled away.
• In Wednesday's game, Weber State sophomore Viljami Vartiainen had a career-high 18 points and knocked down four 3-pointers coming off the bench for the Wildcats. He was 5 of 8 from the field and had three 3-pointers in the second half.
Vartiainen is fourth on the Wildcat team in scoring at 8.8 points per game and ranks sixth in the Big Sky in 3-pointers per game at 2.3.
• Senior center Alex Tew had a season-high 12 points against the Bison. He was also 5 of 8 from the field and grabbed five rebounds. Tew ranks third in the Big Sky in blocks at 1.4 per game. He has played in 102 games in his WSU career.
• Through nine games, Weber State senior Blaise Threatt leads the Wildcats at 17.3 points per game. He has led WSU in scoring six times this season and reached double figures in all nine games and scored 20 or more three times.
Threatt ranks third in the Big Sky in scoring and is first in assist to turnover ratio at 3.5. He is also second in the league in steals, fourth in assists, fourth in minutes played, and sixth in field goal percentage.
• The Wildcats are coached by Eric Duft who returns for his third season as head coach and his 19th season overall at Weber State. He spent 16 seasons as an assistant coach under Randy Rahe before becoming the 10th head coach in WSU history in May 2022.
• Weber State was picked third in the Big Sky preseason media poll and fourth in the coaches poll.
• Weber State has nine players coming from six different countries on this year's roster. The 'Cats have three players from Canada, two from Serbia, and one each from England, Finland, Montenegro, and Japan.
• North Dakota enters Saturday's game with a 3-5 record. They started out with a loss at Colorado State, then beat Dickinson State and Utah Valley. They also have a win at Loyola Marymount. They have lost their last three games, including an 87-81 loss at Eastern Washington on Wednesday night as part of the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge.
• North Dakota was 18-14 overall last season and finished in a tie for second in the Summit League at 10-6. The Fighting Hawks were picked to finish sixth in this year's preseason coaches poll. Paul Sather is in his sixth season as head coach at UND.
• This game will be a reunion of two former Big Sky Conference opponents. North Dakota was a member of the Big Sky Conference from 2013-18. The two teams met 15 times in that span with Weber State holding a 10-5 series lead. Weber State won the first eight games of the series but UND was 5-2 after that.
The last meeting was on February 8, 2018 in Ogden, a 84-76 WSU win, which snapped a four game UND winning streak. The two teams met four times in the Big Sky Tournament over the six year span. Weber State won in the semifinals in 2013 and beat UND is the championship game in 2014 in Ogden. The 'Cats won in the semifinals in 2016 but lost in the championship game in 2017 in Reno.
In games in Grand Forks, the series is tied 3-3 all-time. Weber State won the first three and the Fighting Hawks won the last three games.
• Weber State has a rich basketball tradition and boasts the 26th best winning percentage in college basketball history. WSU has won 22 Big Sky Championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament 16 times. The 'Cats have six tournament wins, including a win over North Carolina in 1999. Weber State also boasts several players professionally, including NBA superstar Damian Lillard who played four years at Weber State from 2008-12, and Dillon Jones who was drafted this year. Jones finished his career as Weber State's all-time leader in steals, and ranks second in assists, third in rebounding and fifth in scoring.
• After Saturday, Weber State will have just one game next week, an instate battle at Utah Tech on Friday, December 13, before returning home for two games the following week.
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
G/F
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