Continuing an undefeated start to the 2024-2025 season, UC Irvine’s Men’s Basketball team (5-0) defeated Weber State University (1-4) 93-87 at the Dee Events Center in Ogden, Utah on Nov. 22. Irvine kicked off a four-game road trip against fellow Big Sky Conference member Weber State, alma mater of NBA superstar Damian Lillard.
UCI immediately came out with a strong start to the game. Propelled by a layup to start the scoring by senior center Bent Leuchten, Irvine jumped out to a 12-0 run within the first few minutes of the game. Alongside Leuchten, graduate guards Justin Hohn and Andre Henry put in buckets of their own and hit jumpers to extend UCI’s early lead. Sophomore guard Myles Che put an exclamation mark on the early ‘Eater ambush, recording a steal and then hitting a stepback three in transition.
After a Weber State timeout, the Wildcats finally began to show some resistance against UCI.
Beginning with a press-break layup by senior guard Blaise Threatt, Weber State punched back with a 14-4 run to close the gap. The Wildcats slowly climbed back into the game with multiple catch-and-shoot jumpers. Weber State shot well in the first half, notably hitting 50% of their tries from distance.
After tying the game at 21, courtesy of a three from Threatt, a dogfight ensued between the two mid-majors for the rest of the half. The back half of the first period was balanced, with no team able to truly separate. Senior forward Dyson Koehler and junior forward Nigel Burris hit huge threes for Weber State to stay close to UCI.
Irvine continued to answer with points of their own, mostly from layups and free throws by Leuchten and junior forward Kyle Evans.
UCI redshirt senior forward Devin Tillis got a layup to cap the half. With only a few seconds left on the clock, Weber State haphazardly inbounded the ball and Henry forced a traveling violation on the Wildcats. Using their remaining timeout of the half, UCI dialed up an inbound play that led to a catch-and-shoot buzzer-beating Hohn three.
Entering the half, Irvine led Weber State 37-33.
UCI opened up the second period with the ball and returned to Leuchten, feeding the big in the paint leading to a shooting foul. Using the foul as momentum, Irvine continued an 8-0 run that began at the end of the first half.
Weber State eventually stopped the bleeding with a pull-up triple from Threatt, who led the Wildcats in scoring on the night with 22 points.
The Cats cut the lead to two after a floater in transition from senior center Alex Tew, the starting big’s only points of the night.
UCI began to separate from Weber State, once again on the back of Leuchten. The German national repeatedly hit layups in the post and consistently drew fouls throughout the night.
UCI Head Coach Russell Turner spoke about Leuchten’s impact postgame.
“[Leuchten] was terrific, he was a dominant force throughout the game,” Turner told New University. “For him to be able to control and be such a factor around the rim was [big for us].”
Weber State went on another run after the UCI lead swelled to 12. Freshman guard Trevor Hennig scored on back-to-back possessions and Threatt continued to push the pace in transition for the Wildcats.
Weber State got a massive boost from senior backup center Vasilije Vucinic — the 6’11 reserve scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half and went back and forth with Leuchten in the last portion of the game, repeatedly trading post-up buckets with UCI’s center.
A Vucinic layup tied the game at 69 before Irvine finally went on a run to put Weber State away. Starting with a Leuchten and-one off of a layup and two missed open threes from the Wildcats, UCI pushed the lead to 12 again after another deep pull-up three from Hohn.
With the score sitting at 81-69 and only a few minutes to go, both teams went on offensive flurries to make the game interesting at the end. UCI ultimately held off another late push from the Utah-based program.
Leuchten led all scorers with 29 points, a season-high. The big man also recorded his second double-double of the season, adding 11 rebounds. Hohn followed Leuchten with 22 points of his own.
UCI continues their four-game road trip at the Western Slam against Kennesaw State in Lethbridge, Alberta on Nov. 28.
Jacob Ramos is a 2024-2025 Managing Editor. He can be reached at jacobtr@uci.edu.
Edited by Jack Fedor.