But when he jogged an inbound pass up the court with 12.3 seconds left in a tie game, he knew to look for center Alex Tew and what read to make.

“I knew the way I was getting to the rim in the second half, they were going to load up (inside) and I saw it forming as I was running up the court,” the senior guard said. “The only thing I’m going to do, my read, was come off the ball screen, see if Al’s open. If not, I knew it was going to be a midrange jump shot. I work on that shot, that’s something I practice, so I’m happy it went in and we won the game.”

Threatt got the airspace he needed and drained a 19-footer with 1 second left to give Weber State men’s basketball a 60-58 victory.

He first looked up to find his mother in the stands to share the moment.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

“I looked at my mom. My mom’s here from Arizona and I see her over there the whole time stressed out about every play, or I miss some shots and my mom gets stressed out,” Threatt said. “So I just wanted to see her reaction.”

There was a clear level of relief for the Wildcats finally getting over the hump, a team trying to come together and make something materialize despite a string of competitive losses with fewer seniors than originally planned.

Saturday, with the team nearing the end of a season that could bring several ignominious records, Weber’s struggling defense finally would “sit down and guard,” as Tew said, for the final 30 minutes and the Wildcats found a way and moved out of last place for the time being.

“We show up every day with a plan for them and hold them accountable and these guys, you’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” head coach Eric Duft said. “I never walk into a team meeting and they look like they’re defeated. They just don’t.

“And I thought Blaise and Alex were as good in the huddles and in timeouts as they’ve been since they’ve been in our program. … That’s something we’ve asked them to do, they’re not naturally gifted at that but they’re trying really hard.

“I just don’t think they have any quit in them,” Duft continued about his team. “We’ve been a tough out all year … every game’s down to the wire and we keep telling our team, it’s two possessions in each half (that make the difference).”

Duft pointed to Nigel Burris diving on the floor to secure a loose ball Threatt and Tew forced in the final minute as one of those possessions that wins games. It was in stark contrast to Thursday’s loss to Sacramento State when it was Hornets guard Bailey Nunn winning a similar loose ball that lead to a backbreaking, shot-clock-beating 3-pointer from Jacob Holt.

“You have to come up with the ball, and we did that tonight,” Duft said.

The coach also pointed to Trevor Hennig as a key factor; the freshman guard scored 11 first-half points and finished with 15.

“He’s a great competitor. Yesterday, we had a meeting with him; I thought the other night in the Sac State game, I thought he worried too much about scoring and not enough about the other things — defending, rebounding, coming up with loose balls,” Duft said. “I’m like, that’s just not who you are. You came here to be challenged; you’re not just a scorer, you’re a complete player. You gotta act like it, you gotta go do it.

“He loves being challenged and he’s like, ‘I got you, I’m ready.’ Tonight, I thought he was terrific in every area. He guarded those quick guys … when we had to have some baskets in the first half, he carried us.”

***

Tew was joyful Saturday night, because of his play and because of the smaller contingent of fans that continue to show up to support a struggling team.

“Probably the best feeling I’ve had playing in a while,” the senior center said. “The last couple of years, I’ve struggled to enjoy myself with injuries and how stuff has gone. When I’m having fun and playing basketball, this is the best feeling in the world.”

Tew turned in a plus-14 margin in just 22:32 of a two-point game, largely by his defense with four steals and two blocks while teaming with Threatt’s additional defensive effort to jam Portland State’s ball-screen actions.

But his crescendo clearly came with a pick-and-roll dunk from Hennig while fouling out PSU difference-maker Terri Miller Jr., then stepping to the line as a career 51% free-throw shooter to tickle the twines for a two-point lead with 1:14 left.

“For a big, that’s the most rewarding play you can make, I would say,” the British big man said. “When you hear the crowd screaming, it’s the biggest confidence booster you can have as a player. The crowd, the student section, we haven’t had the results we’ve wanted all year but credit to them, they’ve shown out every single game … it’s so important to the players, it means everything to us.”

***

Threatt’s big night didn’t start that way. He didn’t score until there were less than 6 minutes left in the first half but finished with 27 points on 50% shooting. And, he’s averaging about 22 points, six rebounds and five assists in Big Sky games.

He missed his first six shots, including four layups that Duft said were probably his easiest shots of the night.

“He was a little out of sorts, so I took him out — not because he’s missing layups but just to kind of settle him down for a second,” Duft said. “I grabbed him and said, ‘Hey man, you’re playing hard. Just settle down, relax a little bit. You’re going to finish — I mean you can’t finish worse than that. You’re good, you’re going to be fine.’

“He took a deep breath … and I’m proud of him. Last year, early this year, when he gets off to a start like that it affects his defense, it affects his rebounding, it affects his passing. And I didn’t think that happened tonight. Defensively, he got back even when he was missing those layups and really guarded hard.”

Threatt knows if Weber State wants to do anything with the precious few games it has left, he has to lead like that.

“I couldn’t buy a basket and I’m not going to let that deter how I play or how I respond to guys on the court, how I treat others. If I’m putting my head down and people look at me as the leader, our whole team is going to feel that and it’s going to affect the whole team,” Threatt said. “I always want to keep a positive mindset and I feel like in the second half, defensively we were phenomenal.”

***

Now comes the hard part.

Weber State seemed to find breakthroughs with each conference win but each has been followed by adversity.

A road win at Idaho State seemed to show a WSU team that was willing to play tough, outdoing a physically tough, rebound-focused Bengals team. Two days later, Threatt was waylaid by a virus, couldn’t eat for four days, and missed two games.

Vartiainen moved back into the starting lineup next to Dyson Koehler for a larger guard line and 37 strong minutes in a road win at Sacramento State. Two days later, the team learned Miguel Tomley was going home to deal with a serious health condition that had worsened to near-emergency levels.

After a humiliating, 23-point home loss to Eastern Washington, the Wildcats resolved to sell out to three things offensively: play fast and use Threatt and company’s strengths in transition, pound middle ball-screens in the halfcourt, and cut and use interior passing. WSU raced to a 35-15 lead against Northern Arizona in an eventual win using that approach, but it was a game in which Koehler ended his career with a broken wrist in the second half.

“Every time we turn around, something’s changing, guys are in new roles, and we just haven’t been able to get comfortable in anything,” Duft said. “I get jealous watching (other teams) … they just have the same personnel out there over and over, and guys know their roles. It’s just been a mess for us. …

“We don’t make excuses with the team. We’re like, this is the situation, it is what it is. It’s not ideal, but we can’t make excuses.”

So what’s next? The Wildcats hope it’s momentum for the faint glimmer they hold internally that they can be the team in March — like Idaho State, Sacramento State and Northern Arizona in recent years — to turn the conference tournament on its head.

“We’ve just got to keep finding a way, and we found a way to be competitive. Now, we’ve got to find a way to win some of these games … Tonight, it was just a little bit more resolve. Now we’ve got to take that next step and get going.”