This is the kind of night it was Saturday in Ogden for Weber State University as the Wildcats defeated Northern Arizona 85-67.
Midway through the first half with Weber comfortably ahead enough that coach Ron Abegglen was already substituting freely, reserve center Andy Smith threw a two-handed overhead pass toward the basket, supposedly to another teammate. Instead, the ball rattled off the backboard and went in for a trey that gave the Wildcats a 35-20 lead.Thus, it was no surprise that the Wildcats had just about everything else go their way as they downed NAU to win a share, the most important share, of the Big Sky Conference regular season title. By virtue of the victory, the Wildcats will now host next week's Big Sky tournament which begins Thursday.
Weber took a 12-0 lead, overcoming any early game jitters, and maintained that advantage most of the first half. With Weber up 32-13, Abegglen began turning to his bench.
"I wanted to give my starters a breather, but I also wanted these younger guys to get a taste of this," he stated.
Weber's bench responded with 19 first-half points as the Wildcats took a 53-38 lead into the locker room. Weber shot an amazing 74 percent that first half compared to NAU's 44 percent.
The Wildcats didn't maintain their accuracy or intensity the second half, but still had enough left to handle the Lumberjacks. Ruben Nembhard finished his regular season career with 22 points, and fellow seniors Lewis Lofton (19 points) and Kirk Smith (12 points and 13 rebounds) also finished their careers with great games. Abegglen added praise for Justin Nielsen and Justyn Tebbs off the bench.
So now as the Wildcats prepare for the conference tourney, Abegglen hopes his squad is returning to the form it had three weeks ago when it began an eight-game winning streak.
"We're not playing as well as we did then," he said, "but we had a great practice Friday in preparation for this game, I think we're getting closer to being where we were."
Weber will enjoy a first-round bye Thursday, then play the lowest-remaining seed on Friday night. The championship and automatic NCAA tournament berth will be decided in Ogden on Saturday.