Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
#1 Northern Colorado
Wildcats take on Bears in Big Sky Tournament Second Round
3/9/2025 8:46:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Weber State and Northern Colorado tipoff at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in Boise.
• Fresh off a win on day one of Starch Madness, Weber State is right back at it to take on league-leading Northern Colorado Sunday night in Boise at the 2025 Big Sky Championships.
• The Wildcats and Bears will tipoff at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday from the Idaho Central Arena in Boise. The game will be televised on ESPN+ and the ESPN app with Tony Parks and former Wildcat coach Joe Cravens on the call. It will also be televised in Utah on Utah 16.
Carl Arky will have the call on the WSU radio broadcast on 103.1 FM "The Wave". Live stats at WeberStateSports.com.
• Weber State is 12-21 overall and coming off an 83-70 opening round win over Sacramento State on Saturday night in Boise. The Wildcats shot 56 percent from the field, made 12 3-pointers and had just five turnovers. Viljami Vartiainen had a career-high 30 points with seven 3-pointers in the win. Blaise Threatt added 26 points with seven assists and six rebounds.
• Northern Colorado won the Big Sky title with a 15-3 conference record. They closed out the regular season with a 68-63 win over Weber State last Monday night in Ogden.
• The winner of Sunday's game will advance to the semifinals of the conference tournament on Tuesday, March 11 at 7 p.m.
• This week marks the 50th Big Sky Conference postseason tournament and Weber State has participated in 48 of the 50 tournaments, the most of any team in conference history. The Wildcats have won the postseason tournament 10 times, the second-most in conference history and have advanced to the championship 17 times. WSU is 50-37 all-time in the tournament.
This will be the 10th straight year the tournament is held at a neutral site with all conference teams participating. It's the seventh straight year the tournament is held in Boise, Idaho.
• Viljami Vartiainen had the night of his career on Saturday as he finished with career-highs of 30 points and seven 3-pointers. He was 10 of 13 from the field, including 7 of 10 from 3-point range. He also had five rebounds in the win. It was his third time scoring 20 or more points in a game, all coming against Sacramento State.
The sophomore from Helsinki, Finland, leads the Wildcats in 3-point shooting at 40.7 from 3-point range. He has 70 made 3-pointers on the season and is third in the conference in 3-pointers per game at 2.1.
• Wildcat senior Blaise Threatt earned All-Big Sky First Team honors at the end of the regular season. In Saturday's win, he finished with 26 points, seven assists, and six rebounds. He was 10 of 18 from the field and had 20 points in the second half.
Threatt ranks 15th in the nation in scoring at 20.3 points per game. He is also averaging 5.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.9 steals per game.
Threat is the only player in the nation to average at least 20.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game. It's the third time in Wildcat history that a player has reached those benchmarks in a season. The other two were Damian Lillard in 2011-12, and Dillon Jones in 2023-24.
He leads Weber State in points, rebounds, assists, and steals, and is the only player in the Big Sky to lead his team in all four categories.
He is just the second Wildcat to ever lead the team in all four categories, joining Dillon Jones who did it in each of the last two seasons. Threatt has scored at least 20 points in eight of the last nine games and has reached 30 or more three times. He is the 13th player in WSU history to score at least 600 points in a season.
Threatt leads the Big Sky in steals and ranks second in the conference in scoring. He is also second in the conference in minutes played, third in assist to turnover ratio, fourth in assists, fifth in field goal percentage, and eighth in rebounds.
He has scored in double figures in all 31 games this year and 33 straight games dating back to last year, the fifth longest active streak in the country.
Threatt has 2,169 career points in 144 career games, which included three seasons at Division II Colorado Mesa and the last two at Weber State. He ranks 18th among active players in all divisions of the NCAA in career points, and has scored 974 points in 63 games over the last two seasons at Weber State. He needs 26 more points to become the 38th player in WSU history to reach 1,000 career points.
• Weber State and Northern Colorado just played each other six days ago in Ogden. The two teams started Big Sky Conference play on January 2 in Greeley, an 87-72 UNC win. Then the Bears clinched the Big Sky title and the No. 1 seed in the tournament last Monday, March 3 with a 68-63 win in Ogden.
In the two games Weber State gave up 24 3-pointers to the Bears. UNC also outrebounded the 'Cats 68-58 in the two games.
• The Bears are first in the nation in field goal percentage at 50.8 percent. In Monday's game, Weber State held the Bears to just 36 percent shooting, tied for their lowest of the season.
UNC is also 23rd in the country in 3-point field goal percentage at 37.8 percent. The Beards lead the Big Sky in scoring offense, scoring margin, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, and assists.
• Weber State leads the overall series with Northern Colorado 25-13, including the two wins this season.
This will be just the third ever matchup between the two teams at the Big Sky Tournament with the series tied 1-1. Weber State beat the Bears 66-63 in overtime in the semifinals of the 2014 tournament in Ogden. UNC beat the Wildcats 80-55 in the quarterfinals of the 2018 tournament in Reno, Nevada.
