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OGDEN — During Weber State’s weekly coaches’ luncheon, Wildcats basketball coach Randy Rahe stressed how important it was for his team to play a game, any game against anybody.
Rahe got his wish, as the Wildcats took on NAIA Saint Katherine College — a school that is in its first year of intercollegiate athletics. Furthermore, the result left Rahe happy as Weber State clobbered the Firebirds, 107-36, in a non-conference game at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
“We didn’t get out of character (tonight),” Rahe said. “When you play teams like this sometimes, you can get loose, you can get sloppy, and I challenged the guys at halftime to play how we play. And, I thought our guys played more like how we need to play.”
The Wildcats opened on a 16-0 run, until Saint Katherine’s Kenan Haywood made a layup more than eight minutes into the first half. Weber State dominated the opening period, extending the lead to 36-13 on a Jordan Richardson 3-pointer with 3:15 left in the half. Weber led 43-15 at halftime and outscored the Firebirds 24-4 in the paint in the first half.
"We didn't get out of character (tonight)," Weber coach Randy Rahe noted. "When you play teams like this sometimes, you can get loose, you can get sloppy, and I challenged the guys at halftime to play how we play. And, I thought our guys played more like how we need to play."
“The focus was on toughness, and points in the paint are a great indicator of that,” forward Josh Fuller said. “We knew that conference was getting close and we really wanted to come out and say ‘Hey, let’s work on our toughness. Let’s get to the point where we can dominate.’ ”
The second half started just as quickly for the Wildcats as they opened the half on a 14-2 run — punctuated by a Jeremy Senglin 3-pointer that gave Weber a 57-17 lead at the first media timeout. Senglin went on a 13-0 run on his own, stretching the lead to 67-17 with 13 minutes left in the game. The lead stretched as big as 74 with 4:20 left, as the Wildcats iced the game out.
On a statistical note, the final score ended up being the largest margin of victory for Weber State at 71 points.
Freshman guard Jeremy Senglin led the Wildcats in scoring with 23 points — a career high for Senglin. Davion Berry scored 16 points, while Kyle Trenak contributed 17 points and nine rebounds. With Joel Bolomboy sitting out the game due to an ankle injury, Kyndahl Hill started in his place and scored 11 points. Josh Fuller finished with a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Now Weber State prepares for a matchup Sunday in one of the hallowed grounds of college basketball — UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, as the Wildcats prepare to take on the Bruins.
Rahe said the win over Saint Katherine will help the team be better conditioned for UCLA.
“It gets us into rhythm,” he said, referring to the game time. “We started to get rhythm against Utah State … and then we get 12 days off, and we went backward. I don’t know how to solve that when we don’t play games.
“It’s going to help us, just from a game standpoint.”
