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OGDEN — Consider it enough to stop the bleeding.
Coming off their worst performance of the season that resulted in a stunning loss to conference rival Idaho State, Weber State shot 50 percent from behind the arc in addition to scoring 30 points off 13 Northern Arizona turnovers en route to a 95-55 win that doubles as its first conference victory of the season at the Dee Events Center on Thursday.
“We put our guys through a tough week this week after what happened Saturday night,” Weber State head coach Randy Rahe said of his “tough love” approach to practice he employed this week. “It was three of the tougher days of practice we’ve probably had for a long time, and challenged them in a lot of ways, challenged their toughness, their competitiveness.
“I was really proud of the guys for the way they responded to what (the coaches) did to them this week.”
Six Wildcats reached double figures in scoring in the wire-to-wire victory, including Ricky Nelson, who finished with a career-high 13 points in 22 minutes while adding five rebounds and four assists.
Jerrick Harding poured in a game-high 17 points to go along with three rebounds and two assists. Meanwhile, Zach Braxton, Ryan Richardson and Michal Kozak registered 12, 11 and 10 points, respectively.
In the wake of last Saturday’s stunning loss to Idaho State, multiple Wildcats spoke of a need to play “together.” They got that group effort in droves on Thursday — beyond a balanced scoring output.
As part of the team’s fourth 90-plus point scoring output this season, Weber State (8-6; 1-1) finished with 19 assists on 33 field goals and a bench differential that was decidedly in favor of the Wildcats (37-23).
“We really need that, we hadn’t been getting a lot of scoring off our bench,” Rahe said. “(Bench scoring) eases the load when you get guys that come in and make some baskets and contribute. … You get some guys coming off the bench that make a few baskets now and then, it relaxes everything. … The more scoring we can get off the bench is good.”
WSU started the game unevenly, jumping out to a 17-7 lead before allowing a 10-1 NAU (3-13; 0-3) run with 11:16 remaining in the first half. The Wildcats promptly followed with a 22-7 run before Chris Bowling buried a triple to close the first half and cut the Lumberjacks’ deficit to 39-27.
The defensive effort that was previously lacking against Idaho State showed from the very beginning of Thursday’s game. An active Weber State defense forced consecutive shot-clock violations on Northern Arizona’s first two possessions while scoring 12 points off six turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. In total, NAU shot 32 percent from the field and just 23 percent from three, in addition to being outrebounded 43-34.
“The coaches were on us the whole week after that loss about our defensive effort,” Nelson said. “We just made sure to come out and play real hard.”
Leading by double-digits at halftime, the Wildcats quickly put their foot on the gas in a second half that saw the team double the Lumberjacks’ scoring output (56-28), and lead by at least 21 and by as much as 44 during the final 14:24 of regulation.
“I think we were just really determined to go out there and make a statement that ‘we’re still here in the Big Sky,” said Jordan Dallas, who finished with 10 points and three rebounds.
He added: “We’re a team to deal with.” Dillon Anderson is studying literary journalism as a student at the University of Utah. You can follow him on Twitter @DillonDanderson.
