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Ogden • Without star Joel Bolomboy, Weber State was in need of some extra inside presence against Montana State Thursday night.
At the Dee Events Center, the Wildcats got it from big men Kyndahl Hill and Zach Braxton — and a whole lot of additional contributors up and down the lineup.
The 'Cats bounced back from a four-point halftime deficit to take control from the visiting Bobcats in a 68-60 win.
Weber (21-7, 13-2) are at the top of the Big Sky Standings with Montana, who visit Ogden on Saturday.
"We're not the prettiest out there now, we're a little different looking obviously," Weber state coach Randy Rahe said. "Especially in the second half, we fought like crazy."
"Basically, we had to rebound. We were outrebounded at halftime [24-18]," Hill said. "We had to make it a point of getting the rebound on the defensive end to get opportunities."
Montana State (12-15, 7-8) led for the vast majority of the first half, starting with a 9-0 run to make the score 14-5.
Coming out of intermission, a block by junior Jeremy Senglin started Weber State off in the right direction. His swat led to a dunk from Hill on the other end and the Wildcats followed that with a Braxton slam a minute into the second half to tie the game at 34-34.
Senglin then got his hands on another Bobcats' shot and that translated into his own 3-pointer on the other end. It gave Weber its first lead since 2-0 and the home team never relinquished the advantage the rest of the way.
"I thought the first part of the second half, when we were able to get some momentum and take the lead, he was a huge part of that," said Rahe of Senglin, who finished with 17.
Another thing that changed after halftime was the ability to keep Braxton and Hill on the floor. Hill scored 16 points and Braxton added 14, but both were hampered by foul trouble in the first half.
That led to increased minutes in the post for reserves like Dusty Baker and Juwan Williams.
"[Baker] had to play the post position. He's never played the post, he's a guard. We asked him to move over for awhile while Joel's out," "He said, 'Whatever I can do to help the team.' He's a smart kid and picked up stuff pretty fast."
The Wildcats might have secured things a little quicker if not for the play of Montana State freshman Tyler Hall, who finished with 22 points. From five minutes left in the first half to almost eight minutes into the second, Hall was the Bobcats' only scorer with 15 points in that stretch.
"Tyler Hall is as good of a freshman we've seen in our league since Damian [Lillard], he's that good," Rahe said.
At the end of the game, Rahe said there was not a timetable for the return of Bolomboy. The Weber State senior post bruised a knee in a victory at Northern Arizona last weekend.
"He's getting better every day. I do believe we'll have him back for the [Big Sky] tournament, maybe even sooner," Rahe said. "One thing we'll never do with him, because he's got a good future, is put him in any kind of jeopardy."
— Eric Butler
Women's basketball
BYU 84, Portland 59 • Lexi Eaton Rydalch led the Cougars with 27 points and six rebounds in their win.
Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher scored 13 points and Kalani Purcell added 12. Kylie Maeda contributed 9 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field in BYU's 16th consecutive victory.
The Cougars are 24-4 overall, 16-1 in the West Coast Conference.
Washington 73, Utah 60 • Kelsey Plum led Washington with a game-high 26 points in its win against Utah.
Utah was led by Emily Potter with 17 points and 11 rebounds, followed by Katie Kuklok with 15 points.
The Utes shot 33.7 percent from the field and 28 percent from the 3-point line. Washington (18-9, 9-7 Pac-12) shot 42.6 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from beyond the arc.
Utah fell to 15-13 overall and 7-10 in the Pac-12.
Montana State 92, Weber State 71 • The Wildcats fell to Montana State, which sits in first place in the Big Sky.
Montana State (18-8, 10-5) had two players score more than 20 points: Peyton Ferris had 33 points on 16-for-17 shooting from the field and Riley Nordgaard had 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Three players scored in double-digits for Weber State, which dropped to 18-8 overall and 10-5 in conference play. Brittney Dunbar and Emily Drake each had 16 points — a career-high for Drake. Deeshyra Thomas contributed 10 points.
Weber State shot 38 percent from the field and Montana State shot 62 percent from the field. Weber State had 14 turnovers to MSU's 25 and the Wildcats were out rebounded 21-45.
Baseball
BYU 7, Samford 1 • In Birmingham, Ala., Brennon Anderson hit a 2-1 fastball for a grand slam in BYU's win.
The Cougars remained undefeated as they extended their streak to five games.
Junior right-hander Mike Rucker pitched for BYU, striking out Samford (4-2) batters in each of his seven innings. Rucker threw 98 pitches and surrendered four hits.
Brennon Lund had a lead-off double to extend his hitting streak to six games. Tanner Chauncey hit a single to extending his hitting streak to 16 games. Nate Favero hit a home run in the seventh inning.
Softball
No. 12 Oklahoma 6, Utah 2 • The Utes saw their five-game winning streak snapped in a game against Big 12 power Oklahoma.
Delilah Pacheco and Hannah Flippen each scored for the Utes, who dropped to 8-4.
New Mexico State 2, BYU 1 • After both teams went scoreless for seven innings, Fiana Finau sent Rachel Rodriguez home with a single to clinch the win for New Mexico State (10-2). McKenna Bull pitched 12 strikeouts, allowed four hits and walked seven.
BYU got hits from Madison Merrell, Libby Suggs and Lauren Bell.
BYU 3, Bethune-Cookman 0 • Libby Suggs scored two RBI to lead BYU to shutout Bethune-Cookman (3-10). Olivia Sanchez pitched five innings for BYU (8-4), and allowed no runs and one walk.
In the fourth, Caitlyn Larsen hit a sacrifice fly to bring Madison Merrell in for the first run of the game. Lexi Tarrow and Bell also scored for the Cougars.