Weber State puts on press, rallies past Idaho in final minutes 70-69

MOSCOW, Idaho – A seven-point lead with less than a minute and a half to play looked safe for Idaho.

Then Weber State put on a press.

The Wildcats went from being down 69-62 to slipping past the Vandals, 70-69, after Quinn Denker’s final jump shot for Idaho hit the back iron. In their closing run, the Wildcats not only destabilized Idaho’s offense, but they scored back-to-back baskets off a pair of steals.

“I don’t know if it was the press or our lack of composure,” Denker said. “Frankly, we just broke down right at the very end.”

Idaho had to play without starting point guard D’Angelo Minnis, who missed the game with a heel contusion. Vandals coach Alex Pribble said having Minnis on the bench instead of in the backcourt in the final minute was costly.

“He would have given us an option as a senior who had been in those situations many times,” Pribble said.

But Pribble highlighted the steady improvement his team has made since the start of Big Sky Conference play.

“We went from playing 20 minutes of good basketball to 30 minutes and now 39,” he said, against a team that was picked in preseason to win the conference.

“It was a disappointing result,” he said. “But I was very, very proud of the effort our guys put together for 39 minutes.”

Weber State is now 17-9 overall, 8-5 and in third place in the Big Sky. Idaho is 9-16, 3-9 and ninth in the league.

The Wildcats’ Dillon Jones led all scorers with 29 points and was proficient at the free throw line, hitting 12 of 13. He also accounted for nine assists.

In putting a major scare into Weber State, Idaho led for more than 31 of the game’s 40 minutes. Julius Mims gave the Vandals 17 points. Denker followed with 13, and Kyson Rose and Trevon Blassingame added 10 apiece. Blassingame and Kristian Gonzalez picked up most of the minutes for the injured Minnis.

While Jones was a handful, the Wildcats’ only other double-figure scorer was Dyson Koehler, with 11 points.

“Our off-ball awareness is huge in our game plan. We knew we had to be locked in off the ball,” Blassingame said of Idaho’s ability to contain the majority of Weber State’s shooters.

But the Wildcats harassed Idaho with nine steals, including six in the first half, and they scored 22 points off Idaho’s 13 turnovers.

“Those first-half turnovers cost as much as end-of-the-game turnovers,” Pribble said. “Not having (Minnis) impacts that.”

For all the dramatic disappointment of the closing seconds, the Vandals did make a credible attempt to pull off a win. Denker said he came off a screen at the top of the key, looked for driving lanes, didn’t find any and got off a jump shot with about three seconds remaining, hoping the Vandals could crash the boards if the shot missed. If it hadn’t bounced high off the back rim, they might have had a chance.While an arc of steady improvement may be small consolation for letting a potential win against a top Big Sky team get away, Denker said the Vandals are looking ahead to the league tournament.

“No one is going to want to see us a third time,” he said.

“You hit it right on the head,” Blassingame added.

Women

Idaho 60, Weber State 47: Sarah Schmitt scored 15 points, Kennedy Johnson added 14 and the Vandals (12-12, 5-7 Big Sky) beat the host Wildcats (7-19, 4-9) at Dee Events Center in Ogden, Utah.

Amalie Langer added 11 points for Idaho, which travels to play Idaho State on Saturday at 1 p.m.