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OGDEN — On a night when underdog teams won and played close games all across the country, Weber State gave it their best shot but ultimately came up short against Washington in a 69-52 loss.
Coming in as 12.5 point underdogs, first year head coach Eric Duft's team kept the score close for a large portion of the game. The Wildcats led for chunks of the first half, but shooting woes and an inability to make key stops on the defensive end contributed to the Wildcats' downfall.
Keith Dinwiddie Jr. — a sophomore transfer from San Diego State — led Weber State in scoring with 14 points, though 12 of those came in the first half. He was followed by another transfer — Steven Verplancken Jr. from Southern Illinois — who pitched in 12 points, including a couple of big 3-pointers.
Overall, the biggest blotch on the Wildcats' night was their inability to consistently score points. Weber State had multiple scoring droughts of three minutes or more; and at one point, they missed 10 shots in a row. The offense was bailed out by an overeager Huskies defense that committed 19 fouls on the night, which led to 19 free throws where the Wildcats shot 84.2%.
For the game, Weber State shot 35.6% overall and just 17.4% from 3-point range. Duft said the offensive inefficiencies were the main reason his team lost the game, but said his team is capable of shooting the ball at a high level.
"We didn't play very good on offense; we didn't make shots," Duft said. "We're a good shooting team, we didn't make shots tonight. ... We'll play better on offense and (the Huskies) have a lot to do with that. They're an athletic, well-coached defensive team."
The Wildcats took some time in the first half to get their legs under them and didn't score until almost three minutes into the game. But following an opening 3-pointer by the Huskies, Weber State went on a quick 8-0 run to jump out to an 8-3 lead. By the time the game reached just under the eight-minute mark in the first half, the Wildcats held a 22-16 advantage over the Huskies, mainly thanks to Dinwiddie Jr.'s offensive prowess.
.@Stevenv_jr with a 3️⃣!
— Weber State MBB 🏀 (@WeberStateMBB) November 8, 2022
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Following the media timeout, Washington, which had previously been in man-on-man defense, switched to a zone defense. From there to the end of the game the Wildcats struggled.
Washington had size on the inside that was led by 6-foot-11 Franck Kepnang and 7-foot-1 Braxton Meah. Although Weber State was often able to penetrate the zone with their guards, they had a hard time finishing anything at the rim thanks to the towers standing in the lane.
The inability to get much inside led to a lot of kickout 3-point attempts, where the Wildcats went 4-of-23 on the night. Thought not every team will have the same size and authority from their bigs, Weber State needs work if it wants to get anything going from inside the arc.
While the offense struggled, Weber State's defense is what kept them in the game for so long. Despite a perceived mismatch in size, the Wildcats made up for it in tenacity. The Huskies shot 44% from the field in the first half and just 22% from behind the arc. It may not have been a perfect defensive effort all the time, but keeping an opposing team to those numbers will give a team a chance.
"I thought, defensively, we did some really good things tonight; that's something we really worked on the last couple days," Duft said. "... Defense travels. We came on the road, we gave ourselves a chance, we were in the game the whole way, and we have to continue to have that mindset."
As the game went on, the opening night adrenaline started to wear off for the Wildcats and the team struggled on both ends of the floor. The Huskies broke out offensively in the second half, whereas the Wildcats struggled to hit anything down the stretch. The score appeared more lopsided than the game on the floor showed, and that's a positive for Weber State.
While Duft is in search of his first regular season win as head coach, he'll have a good chance on Thursday as his Wildcats return home to take on Division II opponent Western Colorado. The Wildcats will look to bounce back and get themselves in the win column come Thursday.
