Weber State men's basketball: Wildcats clean glass, defeat Titans

LOGAN — Behind a 20-point game from sophomore point guard Damian Lillard and a dominating rebounding performance, Weber State pulled away from Cal State Fullerton in the second half for an 82-71 win in the opening game of the Basketball Travelers Invitational at Utah State's Smith Spectrum.

"We had to rebound with them," Weber State coach Randy Rahe said, "and our guys, I thought, did a terrific job on the glass. ... It really helped our cause tonight."

The Wildcats (6-5) shut down the Titans (4-4) on the boards with a 46-27 advantage and erased a 3-point deficit at the half to pick up the victory, as Franklin Session and Lindsey Hughey each scored 14 points.

Session was a beast in the game, adding 13 points and 9 rebounds for the Wildcats.

"That's incredible," Hughey said of his teammate's performance. "A triple-double, almost. Nobody could stop him from rebounding."

Fullerton couldn't stop anybody from rebounding, it seemed. Four WSU players had seven or more rebounds. No Titan had more than six.

The Wildcats used a hot-shooting performance off the bench by Hughey to turn a tight game into a double-digit advantage midway through the first half. Hughey had three quick 3-pointers to boost Weber State, which had a 70-percent shooting average through most of the first half.

A flurry of Weber State turnovers, though, gave the Titans a 20-3 run to close the first half with a 39-36 lead at the half.

Rahe said he reminded his team to get back to playing like they did when they had a lead of as many as 15 points in the early minutes.

Things turned around quickly in the second half, as the Wildcats reclaimed the lead at 46-44 on a driving layup by Lillard with 17:09 to play and never looked back.

"We started attacking and got a couple baskets," Rahe said. "We got a couple stops, and we got it going."

The Wildcats cooled off from their hot-shooting start but still finished the game with a 52.6 percent average. CSUF shot just 43.1 percent and had only nine assists.

The Titans were paced by Jacques Streeter's 21 points.

One-time Utah State signee Bryce Webster, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center, started for the Titans and had 7 points and 5 rebounds before fouling out.

Weber State plays Morehead State today at 5:30 and finishes up the round-robin tournament against Utah State Wednesday at 8 p.m.

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