Weber State in control of own destiny

Way back in November before the basketball season even tipped off, few expected much out of the Weber State Wildcats.

With 13 new faces, a new coaching staff and a miserable finish the season before, it was no surprise to see the Wildcats picked in the bottom half of the preseason polls.

Yet, with four games to play, the Big Sky championship is Weber State's to lose. And the Weber State coach is finally allowing his team to start thinking about something beyond the next game.

"I said, 'Hey, we're up on top of this thing. Now let's go try and finish it off. Let's go see what we can do and go make a push,'" Weber State coach Randy Rahe said after beating Northern Arizona on Saturday night.

The Wildcats embark on a quick two-game road trip tonight when they face Eastern Washington and reigning Big Sky MVP Rodney Stuckey.

The unkind schedule then calls for Weber State to jet to Portland State for the second game of a back-to-back road swing on Thursday night.

The schedule appears daunting, but the Wildcats say they are up for the challenge, even though only three players have even seen the courts they'll be playing on.

"No one else has gone through this trip," senior forward David Patten said. "But we've never played (this trip) back-to-back so nobody really knows."

Of course, nobody knows how much the Wildcats can expect from Patten, either. Weber State's leading scorer underwent three hours of surgery on Monday to repair the damage to his left cheekbone.

After taking a wicked elbow to the face on Thursday night, Patten was rushed to McKay-Dee Medical Center. He was fitted with a plastic protective mask and surprised everyone by playing again on Saturday against Northern Arizona despite the multiple fractures in his cheekbone.

He scored 22 points in the game and earned a standing ovation from the 6,000-plus fans at the Dee Events Center when he left the game.

If Patten is unable to play tonight, the Wildcats will look to sophomore guard Juan Pablo Silveira, Arturas Valeika and Dan Henry to increase their production.

Silveira averaged 19 points in last week's game, while Valeika averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds in the wins.

With a three-game advantage in the win column, Weber State (9-3) has positioned itself well for the stretch run. Three teams are tied at 6-4 for second place and some will add at least another loss because they play each other.

If Weber State wins two more games — especially if one is against Montana in the home finale on Valentine's Day — it will likely secure a regular-season title and allow the school to host the postseason tournament.

First, though, is EWU.

"I'm going to speak in a cliche," Rahe said, "but we just have to go and win the next game. Then we can think a little bit more about the other stuff."

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E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com