Featured Image: Photo by Weber State Athletics
by Zachary Knecht
Coming off their most impressive victory of the season over the Utah State Aggies, the Weber State Wildcats continue their challenging road stretch tonight when they face the BYU Cougars. The Cougars have been playing well as of late, riding a four-game winning streak, but the Wildcats have a three-game winning streak of their own. They will be up to the challenge at Marriott Center.
Weber State will enter Thursday night’s matchup as 11.5-point underdogs with an over/under of 141.5. The Wildcats need to continue to execute well on the following three keys to walk out of Provo with a win.
1. Attack the Cougar Defense
While the Cougars allow 70.9 points per contest, which is middle of the road in Division I play, their defense makes big plays and punishes mistakes. BYU is 18th in the country in rebounds per game (41.0) and is capable of forcing pressure on their opponents with 4.7 blocks and 8.1 steals per night in the early season.
Star Dillon Jones is the perfect Wildcats weapon to disrupt the Cougars. The Wildcats don’t have the depth of BYU, but they will find relief if they can attack their opponent.
Limiting Opportunities
The Wildcats need to limit their opponent’s possessions. Though this BYU offense does put up 77.6 points per game, they mainly thrive off their stellar rebounding and ability to force mistakes. They shoot 44.4% from the field and 33.3% from three. While these numbers are nothing to scoff at, they aren’t as efficient as the better offenses in the NCAA. For both shooting percentages, the Cougars are hovering around #200 in the nation, which the improving Weber defense is more than capable of handling.
Rudi Williams leads in scoring for the Cougars so far with 14.1 per game: Fousseyni Traore and Gideon George are close behind him with 12.8 and 12.5 respectively.
If It Ain’t Broke
In each of their previous three victories, the Wildcats have shot an even 50% from three while pairing that with efficient scoring from the field. Steven Verplancken Jr. has been a big part of the offensive surge. Junior Ballard and KJ Cunningham have also carved out important roles. In each game, it seems inevitable that this pace will be too difficult to maintain, but every game during this winning streak they silence the doubters. Their hot shooting has won them unlikely games before, and it will need to continue to pull out another demanding victory.
The Wildcats will play their final game of non-conference play against the Cougars at 7 p.m. MT as they aim to continue their streak through the holidays.
The Hive Sports 
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