Hot-Shooting Weber State Races Past Cats in Bozeman

Thursday, December 29

BOZEMAN

7 p.m.

Montana State University

0-15-9/ Big Sky

Weber State

1-06-6/ Big Sky

Weber State

Montana State

Harald Frey

Photo by: Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez

12/29/2016 10:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Wildcats shoot better from outside the three-point circle than inside

By: Bill Lamberty

Weber State hit 11 of its 19 three-pointers in the first half to build a double-digit lead and never looked back, beating Montana State 87-75 in Bozeman on Thursday.

WSU guard Jeremy Senglin scored 27 points, hitting his first seven three-pointers and finishing 8-for-10 from the arc and 9-for-16 from the floor. He also added four assists for the Wildcats, who shot 17-for-31 from beyond the three-point line (54.8%) and 13-for-24 inside the arc (54.2%).

"Credit them," said Bobcat guard Tyler Hall. "They were getting open shots, and knocked them down."

Weber State used a 6-0 spurt starting at around the six-minute mark of the first half, triggered by a pair of Cody John free throws and finished by a Senglin trey, to push the Wildcats' lead to 38-29. After MSU trimmed the lead to six, WSU finished with eight points in the last 74 seconds of the period to take a 51-41 into the intermission.

"The first three they knocked down in transition," said Bobcat coach Brian Fish, "and they they got a couple down against our zone. And then the basket started looking really wide for them."

After surrendering 56% shooting from the floor and 58% from the three-point circle in the first half, the Bobcats cut the lead to 57-52 just over three minutes into the second half, and trailed by seven with 2:53 to play after a Quinton Everett three-pointer. Weber State maintained a double-digit lead for about 14 minutes of the second half, though, shooting 52% from the floor and 50% from the arc after the intermission.

The culprit on Thursday was easy to identify, Fish said. "It's all on the defensive end. We're not guarding. We're not stepping up as a group and saying, 'We're going to get a stop.' This is a team thing. Anybody who's played basketball knows that playing defense is about maxing out your effort."

Tyler Hall finished with 23 points, his 10^th 20-point game in 14 this season and the 23^rd in 45 career games. Freshman guard Harald Frey added 18 points, and Quinton Everett, after missing a game with an injury, scored 14. MSU's Sam Neumann and WSU's Zach Braxton shared game-high honors with eight rebounds.

Montana State falls to 5-9 overall, 0-1 in Big Sky play, while Weber State is 6-6, 1-0. MSU hosts Idaho State at 2 pm Saturday in Worthington Arena.