But the same stomach illness that kept him out of Thursday’s four-point loss to Montana had sapped the Weber State senior guard of nearly all his strength and playing a Division I basketball game became practically impossible.

For the third time in five conference games, WSU would be without at least one starter while Montana State, at 1-4 in league play with four close losses, came out Saturday and changed its starting lineup for the first time this season.

The starting lineup shift went in Montana State’s favor — though, on two occasions, it seemed Weber’s young bench might win the day.

After the youngsters made their final push, the Bobcats took control and outscored WSU 31-20 over the final 9 minutes, claiming an 80-71 victory.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

“We had a couple defensive breakdowns that really killed us down the stretch,” WSU freshman guard Trevor Hennig said.

“On the defensive end,” junior forward Nigel Burris added, “just one-on-one, they picked on us a little bit. We’ve got to be better at holding our ground defensively and having that urgency to get a stop.”

Threatt’s illness helped halt any momentum the Wildcats gained in a controlling win at Idaho State — the same Bengals team is now 3-2 in the Big Sky after ransacking Montana 50-18 in the second half Saturday. ISU’s other league loss is in overtime at unbeaten Northern Colorado.

Montana State’s lineup change sat Jabe Mullins and Patrick McMahon in favor of Bryce Zephir and Sam Lecholat. Joining Max Agbonkpolo, Tyler Patterson and big forward Brandon Walker, the Bobcats functionally started a four-guard lineup but with three of them (Agbonkpolo, Patterson and Lecholat) 6-foot-7 or taller.

The matchups were particularly tough for WSU starters Miguel Tomley and Vasilije Vucinic, and the Bobcats (7-12, 2-4 Big Sky) got a quick 7-2 lead to open the game.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

Burris boosted the Wildcats (7-12, 1-4) upon his entry with a couple of buckets while Saadiq Moore, the true freshman getting his second straight start, threw a tough entry pass to Alex Tew for a dunk and blocked Zephir on a drive to help WSU’s best run of the game, 7-0, for a 9-7 lead.

The first half was back and forth from there until the three-freshmen lineup of Moore, Hennig, Viljami Vartiainen, Dyson Koehler and Declan Cutler forced two stops and Moore took the frame’s final possession left near the block, rose and hit an 8-foot baseline jumper to give Weber State a 29-28 lead at halftime.

When the teams emerged from the locker room, the starting lineups again tipped in Montana State’s favor, led by Agbonkpolo.

The sixth-year player who spent three years at USC, and one each at Wyoming and Utah State, opened the half with a 3-pointer, poked the ball from a driving Koehler and got it back for a transition dunk, then tipped in his own miss. MSU’s six-point lead was, for 34 minutes, the largest advantage either team would hold.

A Burris 3 helped trim the gap and then, with Vucinic and Tew in foul trouble, the Wildcats turned to new frontiers, as lineups go.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

Tomley, Hennig, Vartiainen, Burris and Cutler spurred a 10-3 WSU run. Hennig pressured the defense with two drives resulting in 2-for-2 free-throw trips, drove the paint again and wrapped a dumpoff pass around a help defender to get Cutler a layup, and then cut off-ball into the paint for a layup assisted by Cutler.

When Burris bounced in a tough, baseline fadeaway, WSU led 51-49 with 9:40 left.

Cutler — with two points, two rebounds, one assist and a plus-eight margin in just 6:26 — checked out and didn’t see the floor again.

“He had to have a break. It’s hard when you haven’t played in the games … especially as physical as the guys are he’s guarding,” Duft said. “Then it got to the point where offensively, we were struggling, and we needed to go smaller with Nigel at the five so we could spread it out and drive it more.

“We’ll utilize Nigel at the five some going forward, because of his ability to shoot. … Declan has a chance going forward, I mean, his last two games he’s played in, he played terrific. So you’ll see him more as we go forward.”

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

What became a 17-4 rally for MSU began when McMahon muscled to the rim for an and-one. On the Bobcats’ next trip, Koehler rose to swat a driving McMahon; the ball landed in the hands of Walker, who spun baseline against Vucinic. Vucinic deflected the shot, but the ball spun up onto the rim and into the hoop.

Agbonkpolo made another 3 and, when the rally was over, Zephir — 6 of 20 from the 3-point line this season — dropped in his own triple. MSU led 64-53 and Weber State couldn’t make up the difference from there.

Tomley scored seven of his 13 points after that MSU run. The Bobcats never let Weber close mostly due to Jed Miller; the reserve guard scored a career-high 20 points by shooting 10 of 10 at the free-throw line in the final 1:10 of game time.

Hennig finished with 13 points and four assists to help lead Weber State. Moore and Vartiainen each scored 10 points, and Burris totaled nine points and nine rebounds.

Averaging 14.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game to open Big Sky play, Vucinic totaled two points, two rebounds and was minus-16 in 12 minutes.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

“They did a good job of doubling Vuc tonight. When we have Blaise out there, we can get him into positions where it’s hard for them to double him … with Blaise’s ability to drive the ball,” Duft said. “But Vuc has had really good nights … and he grabbed me right after and said, you know, this is as bad as he could play. He took accountability and he’ll come back ready to play.”

For Montana State, Walker added 18 points and seven rebounds. Agbonkpolo finished with 15 points and McMahon had 12.

Both teams attempted 22 3-pointers; MSU made 10 and WSU made seven. Both teams attempted 24 free throws; WSU made 20 and MSU 18. Both teams also finished with 31 rebounds (24 defensive, seven offensive).

Opening conference play with five of its first seven on the road, Weber State next travels to Portland State on Thursday and Sacramento State on Saturday.

In two games this week, Weber State had 98 minutes go to true freshmen while Montana and Montana State had zero. Saturday, WSU had 88 minutes go to underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores); MSU had none.

“Everybody’s doing it their own way but, you know, we want to make sure that we have legacy players here,” Duft said. “We’re going to be happy we have them because there’s going to be a lot of players leaving the league that are older.

“So I think we take from this game that we really developed our bench. I think we can look at playing Saadiq and Blaise together some.”

One of the lumps that comes from a team that couldn’t seem to find winning plays in most close games, then lost momentum with Threatt’s illness, is a big one: Saturday’s defeat is WSU’s fifth straight home loss to a Division I opponent. That appears to be a first in program history.

Despite WSU’s struggles, Hennig, who led his team to a state title last season as a prep player in Washington, spoke confidently about his team’s future. Weber wants to be that Montana State-like team that builds to success instead of fades from it.

“It comes down to if you’re playing your best basketball at the end of the season and I have full confidence in our team that we’re going to get there,” Hennig said.

The numbers don’t look good, but the Wildcats feel the picture, without Threatt, is incomplete.

“We’re not holding our heads, we’re not making excuses,” Duft said. “You’re down one of the best players in the conference, it does take a toll on your team over 40 minutes. But we’ll get him back, we’ll get healthy and we’ll keep getting better.”

MONTANA STATE 75, WEBER STATE 51

Lanae Billy made a 3-pointer and grabbed two steals to launch the Weber State women into a 9-2 run to open the fourth quarter Saturday afternoon at Montana State.

Taylor Smith’s layup capped the run and cut MSU’s lead to 57-48 with 5:52 left.

Montana State called a timeout, then scored the next 14 points. Weber State only scored once more, another Billy 3 with 1:53 left, and the red-hot Bobcats put away the Wildcats down the stretch.

Montana State (16-2, 6-0 Big Sky) used its defensive prowess to force Weber State (5-10, 2-3) — having reduced its turnover load significantly in recent games — into a whopping 32 giveaways. MSU outscored WSU 37-17 in points off turnovers.

Smith led Weber State with 17 points, adding six rebounds, three assists and three blocks. Antoniette Emma-Nnopu totaled 13 points and 10 rebounds. Kendra Parra had eight points and five assists, and Billy finished with eight points.

Ten players scored for MSU, with Natalie Picton scoring 12 points. Marah Dykstra and Esmerelda Morales each scored 11 points.