Weber State coach Randy Rahe pulled Pocatello High graduate Nick Hansen aside for a little talk before his homecoming game against Idaho State on Thursday at Holt Arena.

"All I told him was, 'Hey, go put a smile on your face. Go have fun. Enjoy it,'" Rahe said.

Hansen got the message.

Following the Wildcats' 76-67 overtime win, the junior left the locker room with his College of Southern Idaho backpack slung over his shoulder and talked as if the game was no big deal.

"It just kind of had the feel of every other game," Hansen said. "You have to have that mentality coming into the game and just live in the moment."

Hansen played 27 minutes in his return to the Gate City, scoring six points on 2-of-4 shooting from behind the 3-point line.

Though he did make a point of giving the pregame talk, Rahe wasn't too worried about Hansen.

"Sometimes kids come home, they have their family, and they get too tense and they try too hard," Rahe said. "I wasn't too worried about it because Nick is such a mature kid. I knew he'd handle it. He played really good tonight."

Rather than talk about beating his hometown team, though, Hansen was more pleased that he had another chance to play against Century High graduate Matt Stucki, who was a senior when Hansen was a sophomore at Poky.

"What a player. He had a great night, and I'm just proud of Matt," Hansen said. "He's a good friend of mine."

Stucki returned the compliment to his former cross-town rival turned Big Sky foe.

"He hit some big shots for them," Stucki said, "and he's a good get for them from Pocatello."

Busma sits, Caspari excels

Idaho State starting center Deividas Busma started against Weber State, but only stayed in for three minutes.

That came as quite the surprise condisering the junior didn't injure himself or get in foul trouble.

Idaho State coach Joe O'Brien simply disliked Busma's early defensive effort so much that he benched him for the remainder of the game. During his three minutes, Busma backed away from Weber State big men and allowed some easy buckets.

"No one on my team is going to play that kind of defense on my watch," O'Brien said.

That meant another big man would have the oppurtunity to play, and junior forward Felix Caspari took advantage. The seldom-used junior college transfer came in and scored four points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out three assists while committing no turnovers in 27 minutes of action.

"I really liked the way Felix played," O'Brien said. "He's a rebounder, and that's why he's here at Idaho State. He came in and did what he needed to do tonight."

Caspari said he wasn't expecting that much playing time, but he enjoyed it.

"Coaches always tell me to be ready," he said. "Everybody on this team gets a chance, and whether it's five minutes or 30 minutes I was going to be ready."

Now in first

With Portland State's 72-65 loss at Montana, Weber State is now alone on top of the conference standings with its 7-1 league mark.

The Wildcats weren't too excited about that fact when hearing the news of the Vikings' loss.

"We're not really worried about anyone else," said senior point guard Kellen McCoy. "We're just worried about what we're trying to do. We're just gonna take it game by game and keep pushing."

Delay of game

Heading into the under-eight-minute media timeout, Idaho State junior guard Amorrow Morgan was called for a charge, nullifying his fast-break layup.

The Bengal fans didn't like the call, and as soon as the refs stopped play for the timeout, several fans threw plastic orange basketballs, which the cheerleaders tossed into the stands earlier, in the direction of the officials.

After the public address announcer warned the fans that any more objects landing on the court would result in a technical foul on Idaho State, the fans settled down.

Change of wardrobe

There's a good chance Morgan will never again wear a T-shirt under his jersey during games.

On Thursday, he oddly started the game in a T-shirt, but quickly took it off and reentered the game wearing no under shirt with 7:32 remaining in the first half.

The reason?

"I had to take it off," he said. "I was playing too bad."