Box Score
RENO, Nev. (March 10, 2017) – Weber State is back in familiar territory.
The defending league champion rallied from a 12-point, first-half deficit to down Eastern Washington 80-72 in the semifinals of the Big Sky Conference men’s basketball tournament Friday night at the Reno Events Center.
The win pushed the third-seeded Wildcats (19-12) into the title game against regular-season champion North Dakota on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. PST. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU. The winner earns the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
With a record of 22-11, the Eagles will likely receive a postseason invitation.
The Wildcats forced 13 turnovers by the Eagles, including seven by senior center Jacob Wiley. Weber turned those miscues into 20 points.
Senior guard Jeremy Senglin led the Wildcats with 22 points. Junior guard Dusty Baker came off the bench to add 17 points and junior guard Ryan Richardson chipped in 14. Senglin became the fourth player in Big Sky history to eclipse 2,000 career points.
Eastern was led by junior wing Bogdan Bliznyuk’s 32 points, while league MVP Wiley had 24 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
Eastern came out on fire, jumping out to a 14-2 lead on 10 points by Bliznyuk and four by Wiley.
Enter Baker. The sharpshooter scored eight points as the Wildcats cut the gap to 30-28 with 2:53 left in the half. A pair of free throws by Senglin knotted the game at 34-34 at intermission.
The teams traded leads – there were seven lead changes and the game was tied 10 times – for the first 15½ minutes of the second half. A monstrous dunk by Wiley had the Eagles within a point at 66-65 with 4:36 to play.
Richardson made it a three-point game with a layup and Senglin converted a turnover into a three-point play for a 71-65 lead. Another turnover led to a pair of free throws by freshman Jerrick Harding that made it 73-65 with 3:27 remaining. The closest the Eagles could get the rest of the way was five, 76-71, on a layup by Bliznyuk with 1:09 left.
Weber’s appearance in the title game will be its seventh in the past 11 seasons, all under coach Randy Rahe.
North Dakota won both meetings with the Wildcats this season, 83-77 in Grand Forks and 77-68 in Ogden, Utah.