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Utah Valley's Carter Welling, left, blocks Weber State's Blaise Threatt (0) on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Weber State forward Nigel Burris (5) rises for a shot over Utah Valley's Jackson Holcombe on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Weber State guard Blaise Threatt (0) challenges Utah Valley defenders at the rim on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Weber State's Dyson Koehler (4) shoots over a Utah Valley defender on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Utah Valley's Carter Welling, right, shoots over Weber State's Alex Tew (20) on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Utah Valley defenders Jackson Holcombe (2) and Cory Wells (13) smother Weber State's Blaise Threatt on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Weber State guard Blaise Threatt (0) drives against Utah Valley on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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OGDEN — Carter Welling had it going.

Having taken Weber State starting center Vasilije Vucinic to task for 14 first-half points, the agile Utah Valley center substantially slowed against WSU’s Alex Tew and Nigel Burris.

Still, with Burris giving him no airspace, Welling rose and banked in a 3 from the deep left wing to beat the shot clock, giving the Corner Canyon High School product 20 points with 17:20 left in the game.

That was part of an out-of-halftime sprint that Weber State answered, and UVU held a 49-47 lead with 15:42 left.

Each team scored just 15 points the rest of the way.

Davis High alum Trevan Leonhardt’s driving layup with 3:11 left was the last time the Wolverines scored, and that 64-56 lead was just enough for the visitors.

Burris put back a Weber miss for his first career double-double and a 64-62 score with 1:30 left. Welling, swatting his fifth block of the night, erased a driving Blaise Threatt with 47 seconds left, then grabbed an offensive rebound and drew a foul with 20.4 left on the clock.

In an otherwise stellar night, Welling missed both freebies and Weber State had its chance to tie the game. But Threatt and Miguel Tomley took too long getting into a play against UVU’s perimeter pressure, taking the clock to zeroes when Threatt’s deep, contested 3-point attempt barely grazed iron.

And with that, Utah Valley left Ogden with a 64-62 victory.

Welling totaled 22 points, six rebounds and his five blocks — and was a constant thorn in WSU’s side, drawing three offensive fouls and eight total whistles against the Wildcats. He also shot 4 of 6 from the 3-point line; the rest of the Wolverines were 2 of 11.

“That’s a tall task we ask of him — carry us and be good on offense but also defensively, to block shots, rebound, and I thought he did that very well tonight,” UVU head coach Todd Phillips said.

Welling credited his teammates for setting him up for success in the first half and his effort for everything else.

“Just trying to find a way to impact the game, on offense or defense, is my priority,” Welling said. “We had a lot of guys show up in the second half … just kept finding a way. I was just fortunate enough to make a couple plays for us tonight.”

For Weber State, the junior Burris totaled 17 points and 10 rebounds, shooting 3 of 5 from behind the arc; the rest of the Wildcats were just 2 of 15. Threatt finished with 16 points and six steals, the most in one game for a WSU player since 2011.

The game was decided over nine minutes of the second half. Threatt tallied one of his six steals, a perimeter poke away that Miguel Tomley grabbed and took for a layup, to tie the contest 49-49 with 15:05 left.

Weber State (6-7) went the next 9:04 without a field goal and only netted three points in the stretch.

Phillips credited his bench for taking over the game. In fact, Welling was the only UVU starter with a positive plus-minus tally (plus-one), while bench guard Kylin Green was plus-12 in 19 minutes and Jackson Holcombe, who grabbed four offensive rebounds and scored on several dump-off drives for 13 points, was plus-six.

“Our bench was tremendous defensively,” Phillips said. “They changed the game in the second half with the way they were guarding. … Our team’s really long and athletic. Sometimes we’re not as disciplined as we need to be but I thought they were really locked in tonight.”

Reserve wing Cory Wells was plus-six, too, and took a transition break for a high-flying dunk to put the Wolverines (7-6) ahead 57-50 with 9:08 left.

On the ensuing timeout, Wells drew a taunting technical as teams crossed going to their benches, but that didn’t help Weber State any. Tomley missed both technical free throws and WSU failed to score on its possession. Welling’s final points came at the foul line, two makes to put his team up 59-50.

Burris ended a stretch where WSU scored one point over 8.5 minutes with two free throws, Threatt ended the nine-minute field goal drought with a speedy drive to the rim, and Burris added a jumper to cut it to 59-56 with 4:48 left — setting up the final stretch.

Weber State had one timeout left after Welling missed his late free throws. WSU head coach Eric Duft said they chose not to use it because they wanted UVU to stay in its man defense. The Wildcats needed to get the ball up the floor and attack more quickly, he said, and that was a point of discussion after the game.

Utah Valley’s effort led to 10 second-half offensive rebounds for nine second-chance points.

“That’s unacceptable,” Burris said. “It’s on all of us. We have to be better than that, man. Our expectations are high. … it’s unacceptable how we came out and gave up 10 offensive rebounds. That’s how they ended up getting the dub. It just can’t happen.”

Threatt said poor rebounding led to harder times offensively, too, especially as it limits transition opportunities.

“When we’re not rebounding the ball … those 50-50 balls we didn’t get, it makes it tough on our offense,” Threatt said. “We have the guys, we just have to have the will. Coaches can drill it all they want … but when it comes down to grabbing the board, a 50-50 ball, we’ve got to get those. We know why we lost, it’s pretty evident.”

The Wolverines, who close non-conference play Saturday with a tune-up against Bethesda, leave Ogden feeling good about their pre-WAC run. UVU has played just three home games and has tallied road wins at Weber, Idaho State and a tough one at Murray State.

“Everybody’s kind of new to the team so just trusting each other to do your job. We had a brutal schedule, 10 games on the road,” Phillips said. “I think the guys are learning how to win on the road and how to win close games.”

Weber State, meanwhile, got in three home scraps with three good teams (UC Irvine, North Dakota State, UVU) and couldn’t find a way to win any of them. They’ll play No. 10 Oregon (11-1) on Sunday before the Big Sky schedule begins.

Duft said trust is key for his team, too.

“I think we’ve got to trust each other more offensively right now. It’s not anything out of selfishness, it’s just trying to win, trying to do the right thing,” Duft said. “But we’ve got to trust offensively what we have, not hold the ball quite so long. … We’re fairly easy to guard when we’re holding onto it right now.

“That’s something, before conference, that we’ve got to get fixed.”