Weber State University’s men’s basketball team will face Idaho State on Saturday in Pocatello as the Big Sky Conference regular season nears its end. The game is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Reed Gym and will be available to watch on ESPN+ and the ESPN app, with radio coverage on 103.1 FM “The Coast”.
With a 9-7 record in conference play and two games left, Weber State is tied for fourth place in the Big Sky standings. The Wildcats’ final position could range from second to seventh depending on results from their remaining games.
Idaho State holds a 5-11 conference record and is currently tied for eighth place. Both teams are preparing for the Big Sky Tournament, which will take place March 7-11 in Boise, Idaho.
Weber State has won four of its last five games, including a recent home sweep against Montana State and Montana. In their most recent outing, the Wildcats defeated Montana 92-72, shooting 59 percent from the field and leading by as many as 29 points. The team made nine out of eighteen attempts from three-point range.
Junior Viljami Vartiainen was a standout performer in that win, scoring a season-high 25 points and tying his career-best with seven three-pointers. He made his first seven shots from beyond the arc before finishing seven-for-nine overall. Vartiainen now leads the Big Sky Conference and ranks eleventh nationally in three-point percentage at 43.5 percent. He also stands second in the conference for three-pointers per game at 2.9, ninth all-time at Weber State with 169 career threes, and eighth in career three-point percentage at 40.7.
Five Wildcats scored in double figures during both home wins last week. This season, Weber State is 11-5 when at least four players reach double digits in scoring, including a 6-2 mark within conference play.
Guard Tijan Saine continues to lead all scorers in Big Sky games with an average of 20.9 points per game. Saine has been Weber State’s top scorer in twelve of sixteen conference contests this year and has reached double figures in nineteen consecutive games. He is also second in the league—and twenty-fourth nationally—in free throw percentage at 89.6 percent, which would be the third-best single-season mark in school history if maintained. Saine needs six more points to become just the twenty-sixth player at Weber State to score at least five hundred points in one season.
Sophomore Trevor Hennig averaged seventeen-and-a-half points while shooting sixty-five percent over last week’s two victories after missing five of six previous games due to injury or other reasons. Hennig scored a season-high nineteen points against Montana State and added sixteen versus Montana; he averages just over ten points per game this year.
Weber State leads the Big Sky Conference with an average of thirty-seven point four rebounds per game and ranks second both in scoring offense and rebounding margin.
Idaho State enters Saturday’s matchup after home wins over Montana and Montana State last week as well. ISU’s Gus Etchison earned recognition as both Big Sky Player of the Week and Collegeinsider.com Lou Henson National Mid-Major Player of the Week following performances that included twenty-nine points against Montana and a career-high thirty-six against Montana State; he hit seven three-pointers across those two games. The Bengals lead the conference with an average of four point two blocked shots per contest.
In their previous meeting this season on January thirty-first, Weber State edged Idaho State eighty-one to seventy-nine thanks to a late three-pointer by freshman ArDarius Grayson—made directly in front of WSU General Manager Damian Lillard—who finished with fourteen points; Tijan Saine Jr contributed twenty-eight points along with eight assists.
Weber State holds an eighty-seven-to-fifty advantage all-time over Idaho State but has split their last six meetings evenly (three wins each). In Pocatello matchups specifically, Weber State has won thirty-two times compared to thirty-one losses—including a seventy-seven-to-sixty-nine victory last year.
The Wildcats’ final regular-season game will be Monday, March second against Portland State before heading into tournament play beginning March seventh.
