•  After three road games and nearly a month away from home Weber State will open a three-game homestand beginning Wednesday against Utah Valley.  

•  Weber State comes into the game with a 2-2 overall record and is coming off a 62-61 win at Dayton last week.    

•  Utah Valley enters this week 4-5 on the season.  

•  Weber State holds a 3-2 all-time lead over the Wolverines and the Wildcats are 3-0 in the series in Ogden.  

           

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 can be seen live online for free at bigskytv.org.  Live stats are available at WeberStateSports.com.   

  Weber State pulled off a big non-conference road win 62-61 at Dayton last Wednesday.  The Wildcats trailed by five at halftime and seven points early in the second half but rallied to pull off the victory over the Flyers, in front of 12,176 fans, the largest crowd Weber State has faced in three seasons.  Weber State shot 44 percent from the field and held the Flyers to 36 percent shooting.  WSU also outrebounded Dayton 36-31. 

  Weber State junior KyleTresnak led Weber State with season-highs in the win over Dayton.  The center from Scottsdale, Ariz., scored a season-high 16 points and had a season-high seven rebounds in Wednesday’s victory.  He finished 6-10 shooting and added two blocks in just 22 minutes of play.  He scored seven of Weber State’s first 10 points of the game.  

   For his performance Tresnak was named the Weber State Student-Athlete of the Week.  On the season Tresnak is averaging 7.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game after four games.  He is also third in the Big Sky in blocks at 2.0 per game. 

  WSU junior guard Scott Bamforth also had a season-high in Wednesday’s victory.  The Albuquerque, N.M., native finished with 15 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists.  He was 4-9 from the field, including 3-7 from three-point land and was a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line.  Bamforth made a key three-pointer with 1:26 to play that broke a tie and gave WSU the lead for good.  He also knocked down two key free throws with eight seconds remaining.   

 On the season Bamforth is averaging 10.5 points and 3.5 assists per game.  He is shooting 93 percent from the free throw line.  

  WSU freshman Joel Bolomboy had another strong game in helping the Wildcats beat Dayton Wednesday.  The Fort Worth, Texas native finished the night with seven points on 3-6 shooting and had a game-high 10 rebounds along with one blocked shot.  In four games this season Bolomboy is averaging 7.8 points and is second in the Big Sky in rebounds at 8.0 per game.  He has posted double figures in rebounds in three of the first four games this season.   

RICHARDSON LEADS BIG SKY IN 3-POINT PERCENTAGE

  Weber State junior Jordan Richardson leads the Big Sky Conference in three-point field goal percentage.  The Lewisville, Tex., native is 8-11 from three-point land this season for 72.7 percent shooting.  Richardson was 2-2 from three-point land in WSU’s win at Dayton.  He is also third in the league and first on the WSU team in field goal percentage, shooting 59.1 percent from the field.    

 On the season Richardson is third on the WSU team in scoring at 10.0 points per game and is tied for the team lead in assists at 3.5 per game.  He has played in all 68 games of his career and has started in 18 games.  

  Weber State reached a milestone in last week’s win at Dayton.  The Wildcats have now made at least one three-pointer in 600 consecutive games. The last time WSU did not make a three-pointer in a game was exactly 20 years ago on Dec. 4, 1992 at Purdue.  

 UNLV leads the nation with 846 consecutive games with at least one three-pointer made. UNLV, Vanderbilt and Princeton are the only three schools in the country to make a three-pointer in every game since the inception of the three-pointer in the 1986-87 season.

  After three road games and nearly a month since the last home game the Wildcats are back home for three-straight starting with Utah Valley on Wednesday night.  The Wildcats enter this week having won 18 straight home games, which is currently the fourth longest home winning streak in the country.  WSU finished a perfect 16-0 at home last season, the best home record in school history.

 The WSU school record for consecutive home wins is an incredible 46 straight wins which Weber State had from February 1964 to February 1967 under head coach Dick Motta.  The WSU record for consecutive home wins in the Dee Events Center is 30 from December 1997 to January 2000.    

 Weber State is 394-100 all-time at the Dee Events Center.  Under Coach Randy Rahe the Wildcats are 76-11 at home and 44-4 in Big Sky games.

  After four games Weber State leads the Big Sky in scoring margin (+12.0), three-point field goal percentage defense (.371), rebounding offense (38.8) and assists (17.8).  The Wildcats are second in the Big Sky and seventh in the nation in three-point field goal percentage at 43.5 percent. WSU is also second in the conference in scoring offense, field goal percentage, rebounding defense, rebounding margin, and assist to turnover ratio.   

 Individually, Davion Berry is sixth in the conference in scoring at 14.5 points per game. Joel Bolomboy is second in rebounding at 8.0 and Jordan Richardson leads the league in three-point field goal percentage at 72.7 percent.  Kyle Tresnak is third in the league in blocks at 2.0 per game.

  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.

ABOUT UTAH VALLEY

  Utah Valley enters this week with a 4-5 overall record and is coming off a 67-63 overtime win over Pepperdine last Saturday.  The Wolverines defeated Big Sky team Eastern Washington 86-83 at home.  They also defeated Arizona Christian 96-70, the team Weber State defeated 110-52 in the season opener. 

 So far this season the Wolverines are shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 32 percent from three-point land.  They are holding their opponents to 29 percent shooting from three-point range.  They are being outscored by five points per game and outrebounded by 2.3 rebounds per game.  

 Ben Aird leads the team at 13.7 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, while shooting nearly 60 percent from the field.  Alfonzo Hubbard is averaging 9.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game and Nick Thompson is averaging 9.3 points and 6.4 rebounds a contest.    

 Utah Valley was 20-13 last season and finished 9-1 in Great West Conference action and advanced to the collegeinsider.com Tournament where they lost to Weber State. Utah Valley will be a member of the Western Athletic Conference next season.   

 

HEAD COACH DICK HUNSAKER

  The Wolverines are coached by former Weber State player and assistant coach Dick Hunsaker who is in his 11th season at Utah Valley.  Hunsaker enters this week with a 191-115 all-time record with the Wolverines.  In 17 years as a head coach he has a career record of 358-188.

 Hunsaker played basketball and graduated from Weber State in 1977  with a degree in Psychology.  He later served as an assistant coach at Weber State under Neil McCarthy.  In 1985 Hunsaker was named Weber State Alumnus of the Year.  

 Prior to coming to Utah Valley Hunsaker spent time as head coach at Ball State and Manchester College and in the CBA.  He has also been an assistant coach at the University of Utah. 

 

SERIES HISTORY 

  Weber State holds a 3-2 all-time series lead over Utah Valley.  The two teams met twice in the 2004-05 season and the 2005-06 season and then did not play again until last season when the Wildcats defeated the Wolverines 72-69 in Ogden in the first round of the collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament.  

 Weber State is 3-0 all-time against the Wolverines in Ogden. 

 The Wildcats defeated the Wolverines 72-69 last March 13 at the Dee Events Center in the first round of the collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament.  Both teams shot 48 percent from the field in the game but the Wolverines committed 17 turnovers, compared to just nine for Weber State.  Damian Lillard led the way for Weber State, finishing with 21 points and five assists.  Scott Bamforth added 16 points and five assists.  Isiah Williams had 26 for Utah Valley.  

 “I was extremely proud of how hard we fought in a very difficult environment at Dayton.  We fought back after being down and showed a lot of toughness down the stretch.   

 “Utah Valley is a very tough, physical, hard-nosed team that is extremely well coached.  They will play very hard and we will have to be ready to compete.”

     After Wednesday’s game Weber State will be back home to take on the Anteaters of UC Irvine this Saturday, Dec. 8 at 7:00 p.m.  WSU will then close out the homestand against BYU on Dec. 15.