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Show 4 | MyWeberMedia.com| February 23, 2021 back and nail a quick mid-range jumper followed by a wide-open three-pointer assisted by Reporter a brilliant pass from Kozak to help the Wildcats Isiah Brown and the Weber State Wildcats take an early 5–0 lead. After a series of three free throws from Lumwon big on Feb. 18, cruising easily to a 92–59 berjacks’ guard Luke Avdalovic, Kozak respondwin over the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks in ed by hitting a three after a no-look pass from the first of a two-game series at Dee Events Dillon Jones to extend Weber State’s lead to Center. 10–5 with 16:29 remaining in the first half. The Wildcats were without junior guard/ Both teams were trading buckets as Weforward Zahir Porter and senior center Dontay ber State would pull ahead at moments, and Bassett. Porter was on the bench and not in Northern Arizona would close the gap throughuniform because of an undisclosed team vioout the first 20 minutes. lation, and Bassett was out with a non-COVID It wasn’t until Jones set up Kozak for a stepillness. Senior Michal Kozak started instead of back triple at 5:43 when the Wildcats started to Bassett, and freshman Dillon Jones made his increase the scoring differential. first career start as a Wildcat because of Porter Weber State would go on a 22–8 scoring being sidelined. run after the 3-pointer from Kozak to give the As for Northern Arizona, this was their first Wildcats a 44–28 lead at halftime. Brown went game since Jan. 29 when they won 68–64 7–9 shooting and 3–5 from deep to give him against Northern Colorado. 20 points in the first half. Brown was red-hot all night as he broke his “I try to approach every game the same. Toown career-high of most points in a game with night, I took good shots, felt good and I got 31, including 20 points in the first half, going hot,” Brown said. 6–12 from behind the arc and assisting five Weber State’s Cody Carlson, 34, holds the rim following a dunk over Northern NAU missed back-to-back 3-point opportuni- Arizona. times. His previous record for most points in a ties early in the second half until the Wildcats game was 29. the second half. ish the game with the final score being 92–59. Senior Cody Carlson added 14 points and responded with an 8–0 scoring run beginning At 18:10, Brown finished three more This shot was significant because with Sandgrabbed 10 rebounds. Kozak would start and with Carlson going into the paint and finishing 3-pointers in a span of nearly three minutes ers scoring from deep, it marked 18 threesophomore guard Seikou Sisoho Jawara both at the rim with a layup after receiving a pass to tie his career high with 29 points, guiding point shots made by Weber State, which broke from Brown. chipped in with 12 points for WSU. Carlson would then follow up the layup to hit the Wildcats into cruise control with the score the record of most threes made against a DiviThe beginning of the game saw Brown step his one and only three-pointer in the game in being 58–34. He would then score one more sion I opponent in the program’s history. spot-up to break his career high with him “I don’t really care about the record, but scoring 31 points on the night before sitting I was just happy to give Josh some playing on the bench to rest for the remainder of the time because I love that kid. He comes to work game. every day, he is a good player, pushes the guys “[Brown] made shots early, and his perfor- to get better, and for him to step in to get that mance was terrific. He made wide-open, good shot to break the record, I thought it was pretty shots, he didn’t have to force many. He was re- cool,” Rahe said. ally important to getting us off to a good start,” After splitting a two-game series at Montana Randy Rahe, Wildcats head coach, said about with an 80–67 loss on Feb. 11 and a 91–82 the Browns game. win on Feb. 13, WSU traveled back to Ogden The score would widen to 89–59 before with a point to prove. freshman guard Josh Sanders would walk “I thought we were a little bit complacent off the bench and enter the game. About two and didn’t have the mentality that we should minutes later, he would be the one that broke have had. We got caught slipping, and the loss a Wildcats basketball record. snapped us back into it and we responded SatAt 1:27 left in the game, Wildcats junior urday and tonight,” Brown explained after two forward David Nzekwesi grabbed a rebound bounce-back wins following the tough loss to after Lumberjacks guard Jay Green missed a Montana the week before. Weber State University’s Isiah Brown, 12, goes up against two Northern Ari- jumper and Sanders would gather the ball, walk past half-court and release the ball quickzona University players in an attempt to keep the lead. Comment on this story at ly from the top of the arc to score a three to finsignpost.mywebermedia.com NIKKI DORBER | The Signpost NIKKI DORBER | The Signpost By ALEC CIPOLLINI |