OGDEN, Utah — Idaho State rallied all the way back — well, almost.

    Down by 12 late in the second half, the Bengals fought to within two points of Weber State with less than a minute left, but the Wildcats held on to win 65-59 Monday in front of 6,107 at the Dee Events Center in Ogden, Utah.

    After Royce Williams buried a corner 3-pointer — a common thread throughout the night — Weber State led 53-41 with six minutes and 26 seconds left.

    All three of Williams’ field goals were of the long-distance variety. Along with three other Wildcats, Weber State (8-6, 5-1 Big Sky) nailed a season-high 12 3-pointers.

    “A lot of them were at the end of the shot clock,” said ISU’s Chris Hansen. “We just didn’t get to guys. Give them credit, they shot the ball well.”

    At that point, the Bengals (6-9, 3-3 Big Sky) were dead. But just like they did against Idaho, North Dakota and Northern Colorado this season, Idaho State rallied.

    Over a six-minute stretch, ISU outscored the ‘Cats 16-6.

    And it got really interesting when Tomas Sanchez found Chris Hansen on back-to-back fast breaks for 3s to make it a two-point game with 46 seconds left, part of Hansen’s 27-point, 9-for-16 shooting performance.

    Following an Idaho State timeout, Weber inbounded the ball to Joel Bolomboy, a 63 percent foul shooter. The Bengals immediately fouled, sending the 6-foot-9 sophomore to the line for a one and one.

    He missed — badly. But when the Bengals had to have a rebound, they couldn’t bring it down. WSU’s Jordan Richardson nabbed it first. And Richardson, who scored 18 points, made both of his shots from the foul line.

    “It’s a big play,” Hansen said. “… Bottom line, we’ve got to come up with that. That’s the one play that we have to get on the road if we want to win.”

    Idaho State head coach Bill Evans and every player on his team will say the game came down to more than that rebound. And it did.

    But on a night when Weber outrebounded ISU 38-27, the one after Bolomboy’s free throw miss went a long way toward dropping the Bengals’ record to 1-7 away from Pocatello. Idaho State has not won on the road since mid-November.

    “It comes down to one or two plays on the road every game, and I think it came to that tonight,” Hansen said.

    About those other reasons Weber State prevailed. Against Idaho State’s matchup zone, the Wildcats were patient, largely avoided turnovers and a guy senior guard like Davion Berry — 23 points, six assists and five rebounds — made plays when the shot clock was rolling toward zero.

    “There were five occasions as the shot clock wore down that they made baskets,” Evans said.

    Said Weber State head coach Randy Rahe: “Those are actually somewhat low-pressure shots. But when you win games like this, you have to have a couple of those go in. … We’re pretty fortunate they went in because they went a long ways in just kind of holding them off. But that zone makes you get down to the end.”

    Weber had its star, Berry, score 23, and Hansen came up big for Idaho State. But Bengals beyond Sanchez struggled.

    Andre Hatchett scored a season-low six points. Tomas Sanchez broke away late to finish with 12 on 3 of 11 shooting and Jeffrey Solarin was the next leading scorer with eight.

    Hansen hit 56 percent of his field-goal attempts and the rest of the team shot 33 percent.

    With the loss, Idaho State is squarely in the middle of the Big Sky Conference standings and Weber State keeps pace in first place.

    The Bengals host Montana Thursday and Montana State Saturday.

    “We were there in the end. We just came up a couple plays short,” Hansen said. “It didn’t come down to that last rebound. It was a combination of getting to shooters at the end of shot clocks and offensive rebounding for them. We were in it. We had a chance, and that’s all you can ask for.”