The quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference men’s basketball tournament Thursday in Boise, Idaho, saw both of the conference’s teams from Utah vie for a spot in the semifinals, but only one made it.
The No. 4 seed Weber State Wildcats beat the No. 5 seed Montana Grizzlies 68-56, while the No. 2 seed SUU T-Birds were upset by the No. 7 seed Portland State Vikings 77-65.
The Grizzlies led the Wildcats 6-0 and 12-2 early, but Weber State used an 11-0 run later in the first half to take the lead and Montana never led again.
There was one tie at 25, but then the Wildcats went on an extended 22-2 run to break the game wide open. The Grizzlies made a dent in the deficit, but it wasn’t nearly enough to make things interesting.
Weber State’s Dillon Jones led all scorers with 23 points, while Koby McEwen added 17 and JJ Overton 10.
The Wildcats will take on the No. 1 seed Montana State Bobcats Friday in the semifinals (Montana State beat Sacramento State 83-61 Thursday), with tip time set for 5:30 p.m. MST. The game will air on ESPN+.
Following Weber State’s win Thursday, the T-Birds got off to a slow start against the Vikings and were eliminated from the tournament.
After SUU knotted things up at 2, Portland State went on a 9-0 run and never looked back. The Vikings led by as many as 16 points in the first half as the T-Birds couldn’t get shots to fall.
Portland State’s Khalid Thomas led all scorers with 20 points.
The Vikings will face the winner of Thursday night’s game between Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado in the semifinals Friday.
The Friday game will be played following the conclusion of the Weber State-Montana State contest.