Saine and Vartiainen earn All-Big Sky honors

Weber State landed two players on the All-Big Sky Conference teams, announced Friday by the conference. The all-conference teams are selected by a vote of the league's head coaches.

Wildcat junior transfer Tijan Saine Jr. was named to the All-Big Sky first team, and junior Viljami Vartiainen earned honorable mention all-conference honors.

Saine was one of seven players named to the first team. He led the Big Sky in scoring in conference games with an average of 20.8 points per game in Big Sky games. He led the Wildcats in scoring in 14 of the 18 conference games and scored 20 or more points in 12 Big Sky games.

Overall, he averaged 17.2 points per game and became the 26th player in WSU history to score at least 500 points in a season.

Entering the conference tournament, he also ranks second in the Big Sky and 24th in the nation in free throw percentage at 89.5 percent, which is currently the third best percentage in WSU single-season history.

The junior from Everett, Washington, is also fourth in the conference in assist to turnover ratio and fifth in assists.

He transferred to WSU after two seasons at Western Washington. He has scored 1,247 points in his 83 career games played.

Viljami Vartiainen earned All-Big Sky honors for the first time as he earned honorable mention honors.

Entering the Big Sky Tournament, Vartiainen is second on the Wildcat team in scoring at 12.8 points per game. He scored in double figures in 20 of his 25 games played this season and reached 20 or more twice.

The junior from Helsinki, Finland, ranks second in the Big Sky 3-point percentage and second in 3-pointers per game. He is shooting 43.2 percent from 3-point range, which is also 13th in the nation. Vartiainen is averaging 2.9 3-pointers made per game and has made at least two 3-pointers in 14 straight games. He tied his career-high with seven 3-pointers made in Weber State's win over Montana on February 21.

Vartiainen has 175 career 3-pointers made, which is currently the ninth most in Weber State history. He is also eighth in WSU history in career 3-point percentage.

Weber State finished the conference season in a three-way tie for fourth in the league standings. The Wildcats will be the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament and will play No. 3 seed Eastern Washington on Monday, March 9, at 8 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Boise, Idaho.

Weber State University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Tijan Saine Jr.

Viljami Vartiainen

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