by OGDEN, Utah – The Idaho men’s basketball team fell to Weber State, 69-68, on Monday evening. Idaho (4-9, 0-2 BSC) had the final possession after a late comeback, but the Wildcats (5-8, 1-1 BSC) held on for the win.
THE GAME
The Wildcats started off hot, getting out to a 9-0 lead early. However, the Vandals were undaunted, and responded with a 18-0 run of their own, holding Weber State scoreless for over 11 minutes. With 6:55 remaining in the half, Austin Galuppo hit the first three of the game to end the home team’s scoring drought. With 30 seconds before the half, WSU led by five points, but Trevon Allen (Umatilla) sank a trey at the buzzer to make the score 29-27 in favor of the Wildcats.
Weber State grabbed the momentum in the second half, pushing its lead to double digits with 17 minutes to play. The Wildcats led by as many as 14 points, but Idaho made a comeback bid in the final 10 minutes. The Vandals clawed back and cut the deficit to just three points, 67-64, with 1:38 remaining when Allen hit a step-back jumper. After the two teams traded baskets, Marquell Fraser was fouled. He sunk both shots from the charity stripe to put Idaho down by just one. Weber’s KJ Cunningham missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the visitors had a chance to win it with five seconds to play. The Vandals had two good looks at the basket that would not go down and the Wildcats hung on to win the conference game.
Allen led the Vandals with 23 points, while Fraser scored a career-high 19 points. Jack Wilson chipped in a career-high 12 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
THE NOTES
The Vandals outrebounded the Wildcats, 44-28. Entering the game, Idaho was 3-0 in games in which they tallied at least 40 rebounds.
Weber State forced 15 Idaho turnovers and scored 20 points off them. The Vandals scored five points off four Wildcat turnovers.
Trevon Allen has now surpassed 20 points in five games this season and has scored in double figures in 10 of the 11 games that he has played in.
With his 23 points on Monday, Allen now has 959 career points.
Each team led by as many as nine points in a first half which was full of runs.
