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OGDEN - Despite being outplayed all night by Montana Tech, the Weber State Wildcats were able to squeak past the Orediggers 73-70 Wednesday night.
The Wildcats (4-4, 1-0 Big Sky) started out strong with a 9-0 run, but after that the game belonged to the Orediggers (4-7), who responded to the Wildcats by going on a 35-14 run of their own in the first half; their largest lead extending to 12 points and up two at halftime.
Montana Tech continued to control the game in the second half by opening with another big run, this time 14-8, and maintaining their lead for the majority of the game.
Weber State hung around before going on a 12-3 run and eventually taking the lead with six minutes left off a Kyle Bullinger field goal. After that it was an ugly back-and-forth battle until Weber State was able to close it out with free throws.
"That team we played, they outplayed us, they outworked us, they out-hustled us, they were the more competitive team than we were," said Head Coach Randy Rahe openly voicing his disappointment with his team's performance.
Kyle Bullinger agreed with Rahe.
"They outplayed us in every aspect of the game and it starts with mental preparation. They were mentally much more ready to play than we were," said Bullinger, who finished with 11 points and four rebounds. "We seemed like a mentally un-alert team. We were not there; we were not alert."
The Orediggers focused their efforts on shutting down Weber State's leading scorer, Damian Lillard, who was held to just 13 points and zero field goals in the second half.
With Lillard, who did contribute six assists, contained the Wildcats needed someone to step up and Coach Rahe turned to guard Franklin Session.
"I thought Franklin made some really big plays," said Rahe. "He was ready to play tonight. He played with great energy, he was aggressive, he was competing hard and when you do that, good things happen."
Session led the Wildcats with 17 points, four steals and eight rebounds; half of those on the offensive end.
Matt Washington came off the bench and grabbed a team high 10 rebounds to go along with an efficient nine points, on 4-4 shooting.
Even with the win, Rahe sees a need for a lot of improvement.
"We got to learn from the situation. We didn't play hard enough; we didn't compete hard enough; we weren't as energized as we needed to be," said Rahe. "We did find a way to win, that is the one positive, we did win, but all things leading up to that situation are things that we got to fix."
The Orediggers were led by senior guard Dean Colbray who had a game high 25 points, on 9-20 shooting. Forward Kellen Hasquet also had a big game with 15 points- all four of his field goals from behind the 3-point line.
Despite his success, Session is already ready to move on from this game.
"We just got to forget about this game. It wasn't too good of a game for us offensive or defensive. We just got to go in ready for the next game," he said.
That next game is Saturday in the Dee Events Center against Southern Utah University.
Tipoff is set for 7:05 p.m.
