•  Weber State hits the road to play at the University of Dayton Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio.  

•  The Wildcats are 1-2 on the season coming off a 65-55 loss at Utah State  on Saturday. 

•  The Dayton Flyers enter Wednesday’s game 4-1 on the season

•  This will be the first meeting ever between the two schools and Weber State’s third game ever in the state of Ohio.

           

MEDIA INFORMATION

 Wednesday’s game will be heard live on FM-106.9 “The Zone” with Carl Arky, the 2011 Utah Sportscaster of the Year, calling the action.  It can also be heard online at 1280thezone.com.    

 The game will also be televised locally in Ohio on WHIO-TV.  It can also be seen online for free at DaytonFlyers.com, which will also have live stats of the game. 

  Weber State lost its second-straight game falling 65-55 Saturday at Utah State.  The Wildcats were tied with the Aggies with 5:00 to play but were outscored 12-2 the rest of the game.  Weber State shot just 34 percent from the field, including 24 percent in the second half.  The Wildcats also shot 55 percent from the free throw line and were outrebounded 43-30. 

  For the third time in three games this season the Wildcats were led in scoring by junior Davion Berry who posted 11 points in Saturday’s game with the Aggies.  Berry also grabbed three rebounds and had three assists and two steals in the game.  After three games Berry ranks second in the Big Sky in scoring at 16.3 points per game.  

 The Oakland, Calif., native was a Division II All-American at Cal State Monterey Bay before transferring to Weber State.  He sat out last season with the Wildcats as a transfer.  

  Weber State sophomore James Hajek led the Wildcats and tied his career-high with eight rebounds in Saturday’s game in Logan.  The Omaha, Neb., native played in 22 minutes off the bench for the Wildcats and had three offensive and five defensive rebounds along with four points.  So far this season Hajek is second on the team in rebounding at 6.0 per game and is averaging 5.3 points per game and shooting 60 percent from the field.    

  WSU junior forward Byron Fulton has missed all three games so far this season after having his right knee scoped.  He likely will be available to play in Wednesday’s game at Dayton.

  After three games Weber State leads the Big Sky in scoring margin (+15.7), three-point field goal percentage defense (.268), rebounding offense (39.7), rebounding margin (+4.3), assists (18.0), assist/turnover ratio (1.4).  

WSU is also second in the conference in scoring defense, second in field goal percentage defense and three-point field goal percentage. 

 Individually, Davion Berry ranks second in the conference in scoring at 16.3 points per game.  Joel Bolomboy is second in the league in rebounding at 7.3 per game.  Jordan Richardson and Royce Williams are tied for the conference lead in three-point field goal percentage at .667.  Richardson and Scott Bamforth rank second in the conference in assist/turnover ratio and Kyle Tresnak is third in blocked shots at 2.0 per game. 

  The Wildcats shot just 55 percent from the field in Saturday’s game at Utah State.  On the season the Wildcats are shooting 65 percent from the line this season.  Weber State led the nation in free throw percentage last season at 81.4 percent.    

  The University of Montana was picked to repeat as Big Sky men’s basketball champions according to a preseason coaches and media polls.  Weber State was picked second in both polls, marking the first time in five seasons that the Wildcats were not picked to win the conference title in the preseason polls. 

  Montana, who posted a 15-1 conference record last season and won the conference tournament, garnered eight first place votes and 98 total points in the coaches polls.  They had 24 first-place votes in the media poll and totaled 344 points. 

  Weber State was second with 92 points in the coaches poll and had three first-place votes.  The Wildcats also had eight first-place votes in the media poll and totaled 318 points.  Northern Colorado came in third in the coaches poll and fourth in the media poll.  Eastern Washington was third in the media poll and finished sixth in the coaches poll.  New conference member North Dakota came in fourth.

  Weber State is coming off one of the best seasons in schools history as the Wildcats finished with a 25-7 overall record and advanced to their fourth straight post-season tournament appearance.  WSU finished second in the Big Sky regular season with a 14-2 record and advanced to the finals of the conference tournament.  WSU advanced to the collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament where they won a first round game.  Weber State has won 10 or more conference games for six straight seasons.

  The Wildcats lost three players off last year’s squad including Big Sky MVP and All-American Damian Lillard, who finished his career as one of the top players in Weber State and Big Sky history.  Lillard finished second in the nation in scoring last season and became the first player in Big Sky history to be named to an All-American team.  He leaves as Weber State’s career leader in three-pointers and free throws made and is second in school history in career scoring and assists.  Lillard was selected as the sixth overall selection in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.  Also gone off last year’s team are Kyle Bullinger and Darin Mahoney.  The three Wildcats combined to play in 343 career games with the Wildcats. 

  Dayton enters Wednesday’s game with a 4-1 overall record.  The Flyers opened the season with a win over Arkansas State and also has wins over Boston College, Auburn and Manhattan.  The lone loss was a 10-point loss to undefeated Colorado.  This season the Flyers are led by senior guard Kevin Dillard who is averaging 15.2 points and 5.3 assists per game.  Dillard was a preseason Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team selection and earned Second Team All-District honors last season.  Another guard, Vee Sanford, is averaging 13.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. 

 Dayton is averaging 71.4 points per game this sdeason and shooting 49 percent from the field, including 40 percent from three-ponit land.      

 The Flyers posted a 20-13 record last season and were 9-7 in Atlantic 10 conference games.  The Flyers were picked to finish eighth in this year’s A-10 preseason poll.  

 The University of Dayton is a private Roman Catholic University with an enrollment of approximately 11,000 students.  Notable alumni of Dayton include former NFL head coaches Jon Gruden and Chuck Noll, former NBA player Jim Paxon and national award-winning sportscaster Dan Patrick.  The nickname Flyers is a reference to the Wright brothers, Daytonians Orville and Wilbur Wright. 

 The Flyers play at the University of Dayton Arena, which has hosted the NCAA Tournament First Four games since 2001.  Dayton has had 204 consecutive regular season home games with an attendance of at least 11,000 fans.  In the past 15 years 442 of 445 home games have drawn at least 10,000 fans.  The Flyers have been in the top 30 in the nation in attendance for 15 straight seasons.  They were 28th in the nation last season with 12,154 fans per game.

 

HEAD COACH ARCHIE MILLER

  The Flyers are coached by Archie Miller who is in his second season with the team.  He enters Wednesday’s game with a 24-14 overall record at Dayton.  Miller, age 34, is the fifth-youngest Division I coach in the country.  He came to Dayton after spending two seasons as an assistant coach at Arizona, working for his brother Sean Miller who is the head coach at Arizona.  Prior to that Miller was an assistant coach to Thad Matta at Ohio State for two seasons and has also spent time as an assistant at North Carolina State and Western Kentucky.  

 Miller was a four-year letterwinner at North Carolina State from 1998-2002 and ranks second in NC State history in career free throw percentage and career three-point percentage.   

 

SERIES HISTORY 

  This will be the first meeting ever between the two schools.  Weber State is 4-1 all-time against current teams from the Atlantic 10 conference but all of those games were played more than 30 years ago.  WSU is 2-0 against Butler, 1-0 against Saint Louis and 1-1 against Rhode Island. 

 This will also be just the third game Weber State has played in the state of Ohio.  The Wildcats lost 92-50 at Akron in 1989 and lost 76-62 at Cincinnati in the first round of the NIT in 2010 in the only other games played in the Buckeye state. 

 “I thought we played hard and carried out our game plan at Utah State and I was proud of our effort.  We couldn’t make the shots when we needed to but I think we learned more about our team.  

 “Obviously Dayton is a very good basketball team and will be another extremely difficult test for us.  Playing on the road in a tough environment is good for our team.  These games are good tests for us to see where we are as a team.”

     After Wednesday’s game Weber State will return home for their first home game in nearly a month when the ‘Cats host Utah Valley next Wednesday.  It will be the first of three straight home games.  WSU has won 18 straight home games, tied for the sixth longest streak in the nation.