'Cats clobber Lions

Everything was going right for the Weber State University Men’s Basketball Team in their first game of the year. The team opened up their season with an exhibition game against the University of Colorado -- Colorado Springs. It didn’t take long for the Wildcats to open up a big lead. They were up 26-9 seven minutes into the game, on their way to a 110-57 victory.
Head Coach Randy Rahe said he was happy with the performance, although he still nitpicked the team’s defense in the first half, and was surprised at the number of consecutive three-pointers that the team hit to start the game.
“I didn’t know it was 13 (three-pointers),” Rahe said. “Was it 13 in a row? We got good shooters. I’ve said all along I think we’ve got good shooters with this team. It’s good to see the ball going in the basket and it’s good for some of those shooters to get off to a good start confidence-wise.”
Rahe then went on to explain why the team was able to hit so many shots.
“But the reason they got those open looks I thought we were really unselfish,” Rahe said. “We really made the extra pass, we shared the ball, we had 23 assists on 36 field goals and when we make that extra pass and our guys are spotted up we got a chance to make them because, again, we’ve got good shooters. I thought a lot of the reasons we did that is because of our unselfishness.”
Junior Franklin Session scored his first points as a Wildcat on a breakaway dunk after stealing the ball early in the first half.
Sophomore Damien Lillard was one free throw away from a perfect game, shooting 8-8 from the field and 6-6 from beyond the arc and 5-6 from the line.
“It felt good,” Lillard said. “We shot good this week in practice and we was anxious to play against someone else. So we came out and I don’t know what happened but we got a lot of open shots and everybody was being unselfish.”
The ’Cats didn’t just win the game by playing defense, they  outrebounded the Mountain Lions 40-29.
“It’s big; obviously you’ve got to be able to rebound the ball and that’s one of my concerns, I keep telling the team every day,” Rahe said on the rebounding margin. “I’m not sure yet, we’re going to find as we go if we can guard and rebound. We talked to Steve and Trevor after a couple scrimmages about being more active on the glass. It was good to see Steve get 11 and Trevor get seven and that’s going to be huge for us.”
The game showcased both returning players and newcomers. Junior Josh Noble drew cheers with a circus-like reverse layup and so did senior Steve Panos with a big block. Nick Hansen hit his first five threes, ended up 6-9 and Session hit his two.
Lillard said everybody was playing well together because they knew their roles, accepted them and didn’t try to be bigger than the team.