The 2000-01 men?s basketball team took the court for the first time Saturday, in an exhibition game against the Bay Area sports club, “Tribe Called Sweat.”

TCS proved to be little competition for Sac State however, as five Hornets scored in double-figures en route to a 122-81 victory.

In the first half, TCS was able to keep the score close as the Hornets started out cold from the outside, and could only manage a 17-15 lead after the game?s first 10 minutes. But then Pablo Gonzales, who led Sac State with 22 points, hit a three-pointer, and Arinze Anouro scored back-to-back buckets to open up the flood gates and the Hornets went into the locker room with a 55-40 half-time lead.

“It?s our first game,” head coach Jerome Jenkins said. “We know we have a lot of work to do, but it was good to get out there and get rid of those first game jitters.”

The Hornets continued to shoot the lights out in the second half, led by Gonzales who scored 10 of the team?s first 12 second half points. Rene Jacques, whose dribble penetration into the lane broke down the TCS defense and created open looks for his teammatates, chipped in 15 points for the game.

“We came out with the intensity a little bit low,” Gonzales said. “But once we started to get it going offensively, we were doing good. We just want to keep our confidence up and continue to play well.”

The game flowed at a very up-tempo pace, and Jenkins felt good that the offense could maintain control, but also thought that the inside game could have been more of a force. “We?re just going to go out and take what the defense gives us,” he said. “I thought our big guys could have played a little bit stronger, and we?ll work on that, but it?s going to be a different style every night. We?re an up-tempo offense, and we?re going to shoot that outside shot and take what the defense gives us.”

While happy with the win, the Hornets saw a lot of room for improvement and will continue to work hard in order to be a competitive force in the Big Sky.

“We need to work on defense,” Jenkins said. “That?s what we are going to pride ourselves on, and we need to work on turnovers. We really need to limit unforced turnovers.”

The players also know that they can?t afford to give up a lot of points if they want to win consistently this year.

“We have to get better on defense,” Gonzales said. “We can?t give up that many points. We have a lot of games against better teams ahead of us, and we need to get stronger in that area. Right now we?re playing well on offense, so we just need the defense to gel a little bit better.”

To go along with his 22 points, Gonzales added seven assists and seven rebounds. Ricky Glenn added 16 points and seven rebounds, and Rame Batta put up 13 points and dished out seven assists to help lead the way for Sac State.

The Hornets will play their second and final exhibition game this Saturday against Oracle before their first regular season game on Friday, Nov. 17 against Bethany College. Both games will be held in Hornet Gym, and both tip off at 7:05 p.m.