Weber State faces another in-state battle

The Weber State men’s basketball team (7-3) went 1-1 again this week, falling on the road to the University of California - Berkeley, 77-57 on Friday, and beating Mayville State, 106-57 on Monday.

The common theme with the Wildcats has been an inability to win the big games on the road while taking care of business at home against the teams they are supposed to beat.

In the Wildcats’ road struggles, they have struggled shooting the ball while all three teams they’ve lost to have shot the lights out. Cal shot 51-percent from the field while Weber State shot a season-low 31-percent.

The Bears never trailed in the game, leading at halftime by 14 points. The Wildcats trimmed the lead to eight but that’s as close as they were going to get in the second half.

Part of the reason the difference in shooting percentages was so huge was the Cal size advantage. The Bears scored 34 points in the paint to Weber State’s eight. Cal also outrebounded the Wildcats, 41-32.

A very good sign for the Wildcats is the resurgence of shooting guard Scott Bamforth. Bamforth led Weber State with 19 points, going 5-for-9 from three-point range. A bad sign, however, was center Kyle Tresnak’s performance. Tresnak managed just four points and six rebounds inside. The nation’s leading scorer, Damian Lillard, was held relatively quiet, scoring 14 points on the night.

Meanwhile, Mayville State, an NAIA team, simply was no match for the Wildcats. Weber State had four players in double digits in the blowout win. Lillard led all scorers with 28 points adding a career-high 12 rebounds. Meanwhile sophomore Jordan Richardson scored a career-high 23 points, Bamforth picked up 19 points and freshman James Hajek added 13.

The Wildcats also set a school record for three-pointers, knocking down 18 in the game. The previous record was 16 which was set earlier in the season.

The biggest concern going forward should be the inside game. Right now, the Wildcats’ length is just not there, as evidenced by the points in the paint disadvantage in two of their three losses. It was 34-8 in the Cal loss and 42-22 in the BYU loss.

Also of big concern are the injuries to forwards Kyle Bullinger and Frank Otis. Center Kyle Tresnak tweaked his back in the Cal game, but should be good to go for the Utah game. That, however, is something to definitely keep an eye on as the season progresses.

The biggest strength going forward is the outside shooting, but we’ve said it all season and we’ll say it again. Weber State lives by the three and they die by the three. The Wildcats went 3-of-12 in their loss to St. Mary’s, 5-of-22 in their loss to BYU and 12-of-31 in their loss at Cal.

That may be attributed to playing on the road where it’s tougher to find a groove, and this is a problem that needs to get fixed as the season goes on. It should as the Wildcats go on the road more often.

With the Utah game at home Thursday night, this shouldn’t be a problem. But the Utes are very physical inside. They won their inside battle with BYU, outscoring the Cougars 20-12 in the paint.

Utah is steadily improving, but this should be a game that the Wildcats come away with. The physicality of the Utes inside will keep them in it, but Weber State should pull away. Utah turns the ball over a lot and the Wildcats are one of the best teams in the nation at capitalizing on their opponent’s turnovers.

Look for a scrappy game, just like the Utah-BYU game a couple weeks ago, with a lot of turnovers.

The Utah game will be the only game of the week, with the next one being the first Big Sky Conference game of the season when Idaho State comes to the Dee Events Center on Thursday, Dec. 29.

Trevor Amicone is the sports director at 88.1 Weber FM "Ogden's Radio Station" and host of the sports talk radio show, "Fully Loaded Sports with Trevor Amicone." Find more of his blogs at TrevorsTopTens.com. Follow him on Twitter at @TrevorAmicone

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