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OGDEN — Both on paper and on the court, Brekkott Chapman has been a revelation.
On Thursday, the senior registered another do-it-all performance to lead his Weber State Wildcats past the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, 77-52, at the Dee Events Center. Chapman finished with 17 points, 16 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals, while Jerrick Harding and Cody John pitched in twin 14-point efforts.
Chapman’s play seems to be the engine for the Wildcats this season.
“You see his look before games, he’s ready to go,” head coach Randy Rahe said. “He’s playing with a bunch of confidence and he should.
“Our team feeds off of that,” he continued. “Our team feeds off his energy.”
It was the kind of slow start that has plagued the Wildcats this season. The Lumberjacks jumped on Weber early, and the best evidence of Weber’s ineptitude showed in its lack of free-throw attempts and made 3-pointers. The Wildcats had numerous open looks from distance that rimmed out and zero free-throw attempts through the first 16 minutes, and the result was a 20-14 deficit with 7:08 remaining in the first half.
Despite the slow start, the Wildcats rolled out to 31-27 lead thanks to a 20-4 edge points-in-the-paint. They kept it going in the second half as they opened up on a 9-3 run. And from there, little was in question beyond the final score.
“I was really proud of the kids tonight, because that first half we weren’t able to get anything to fall,” Rahe said. “It was a strange shooting deal, we had open looks and they weren’t going in. … But I told the kids at halftime I was proud of them because we kept guarding and guarding and guarding when shots weren’t falling. Sometimes lesser teams, if the ball isn’t going they quit guarding, they get discouraged. And we didn’t do that.
“It wasn’t a bad first half defensive-wise, the ball just wasn’t falling,” Chapman said of his team’s woeful first-half. “We had to just keep going, do what we do. Keep playing defense, toughen up on defense and offense will come.”
The Wildcats ended up with 46 points in the paint, 18 points off turnovers and 16 fast-break points to the Lumberjacks’ 18, 8 and zero, respectively.
“We were gonna play really good offense in the second half, I knew we would,” Rahe said. “Going into the second half, we continued to get stops, then we got our transition game going and that kind of filled out our half-court offense. So a lot better offense in the second half.”
Weber State shot 14-34 (41.2 percent) in the first half, and Chapman had eight points, while Zach Braxton, Harding and John had each six to lead the way.
Chapman, who is playing the way Rahe has expected him to before the season, not only hit 4 of 8 first half field goals but also had six rebounds, two blocks and two assists.
Since scoring three points against Fresno State, Chapman is averaging 15.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in his last six games.
“He’s playing really well, he’s been locked in,” Rahe said of the Roy native after the game. “A few weeks ago, we had a deal where he did not perform very well and he wasn’t ready to play and I didn’t think he practiced very well before the game. I didn’t think he was locked in. He was spacey or whatever. And I had a talk with him, I just say ‘Hey, man you’re one of our leaders. You’re a senior and you’re too good a player and you gotta come locked and loaded for practice, and if you do you’re gonna play well.’
“And it didn’t take long,” Rahe continued. “It was just one game and a couple of practices. … Every kid messes up once in a while, but he’s responded really well to it.” Follow Dillon on Twitter @dillondanderson.
