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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." Storylines

• Jeremy Senglin scored 17 points to pace Weber State while big men Kyndahl Hill and Zach Braxton scored 16 and 14 respectively.

• Without Joel Bolomboy in the lineup, the Wildcats trailed almost the entire first half before taking the lead with nine straight points to start the second.

• Freshman Tyler Hall scored 22 points for Montana State and was the only scorer for the visitors during a 13-minute stretch over both halves.