’Cats Championship bound

At this time last year, things looked pretty similar for the Weber State University Men’s Basketball Team. Then they came up short in the semifinals, something this year’s team vowed wouldn’t happen again. They made good on their promise with a 69-60 win over the Portland State University Vikings, last year’s champions.
“We lost this game last year,” said sophomore Damian Lillard. “We just wanted to work hard and get better and make sure it didn’t happen again. We worked hard every practice and never took a day off. We got back in the exact same situation as we were in last year except we won.”
The win didn’t come easily, the Wildcats started slow, PSU scored six points before junior Franklin Session hit a free throw for WSU’s first point. WSU didn’t shoot well the whole game and didn’t lead until nearly eight minutes into the game when Lillard threw down a two-handed dunk in traffic to put the team up 14-13. Shortly after, Lillard and PSU guard Dominic Waters were assessed with double technicals. After the game Lillard gave his side of the story.
“He came down and elbowed me in my face,” Lillard said. “And I told the referee, I said ‘he just elbowed me in my face’ and then he did it again in front of the referee. I chased him down and the ball went out of bounds then he looked at me and I looked at him, we exchanged some words and then he put his hand in my face. My dad taught me not to let anybody put their hand in my face so I slapped it away. I thought that would get my team fired up too and it did.”
Lillard led the Wildcats with 23 points in the game. Session kept the team in the game early, scoring nine of WSU’s first 12 points, ending the game with 13 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.
Session said the loss against PSU on Sunday, Feb. 28, the Wildcats’ last regular season game, gave him a little extra motivation to do well in Tuesday’s game.
“I wasn’t aggressive enough at Portland State so I was kind of a little upset,” Session said, “but all the coaches told me to stay aggressive and if I can defend and rebound we could get the win.”
With a minute and a half left in the game, the Wildcats up 61-54, the Vikings began to foul in a last-ditch effort at a comeback. WSU gave them opportunities to bring it closer by missing four of their first five free throws but held the Vikings scoreless and retained control of the game.
“It’s not all about shooting,” said Head Coach Randy Rahe. “I mean, success is because of defense and rebounding as well, there’s so many other aspects to the game. We got really good looks at the basket, really good looks, shots our kids usually make in their sleep and it didn’t effect how hard we played. Sometimes it can, so I thought that the other aspects were very good.”
Despite the extra-curricular activity in the first half between Lillard and Waters, after the game during the handshakes the two players embraced.
“I respect him a lot,” Lillard said of Waters. “The crowd was chanting ‘MVP’ for me but it could have easily went to him. I think he’s worthy of being MVP of the league. I respect him a lot because when I see a player like him that I’m about to get, I’m just going to embrace the challenge. Obviously he did too and that’s why we got in an altercation.”
The finals will be held Wednesday, March 10 against the University of Montana at 7 p.m. UM is a team with a lot of length and talent and have split their regular season games, both teams winning at home. Lillard said he was excited for the opportunity to play them again.
“Yup,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing Montana.”