While the year 2000 gift-wrapped two victories in the early stages of the Sac State men?s basketball team, the winter break put a startling cold chill to its hot start, and the turn of the calendar into 2001 has brought despair to Jerome Jenkins and his Hornets, as they could muster only one win in that time.

Most recently, the Hornets have fallen to Eastern Washington Jan. 24 by a score of 67-57, and again to Portland State on Friday by a score of 81-77.

Against Eastern Washington, the Hornets opened the game with a strong start and led, 21-12, with 6:37 left in the first half. EWU, however, rallied back ending the period on a 16-4 run to lead, 28-25 at intermission. Pablo Gonzales? 18 points could not fend off the Eagles, as Aaron Olson drained three three-point shots, and buried the Hornets down the stretch.Portland State took advantage of a cold shooting night from behind the arc, by the up-tempo Hornet offense that shot only 2-12 from three-point land. For Sac State, Rickie Glenn and Gonzales combined for 51 of the team?s 77 points, scoring 27 and 24 points respectively. Rame Batta also played a nice game, adding 15 points, but the only other two players to score were Arinze Anoruo and Jim Brewer, leaving the depth of the Hornet squad in question.

The problems for the Hornets, who now stand at 3-14 overall, and an 0-6 conference record, are compounded by the fact that they now hold the un-enviable Big-Sky record of 35 straight conference road losses. They have also had to dismiss two promising guards from the team in Ronnie Walton, and freshman Chris Armstrong.

“This decision is not based on one incident,” head coach Jerome Jenkins said about Armstrong. “There are certain expectations that have been placed on each member of this team. Chris has shown a pattern of choices that are not up to these expectations.”Walton played the last two seasons at Detroit before coming to Sac State, where he has never suited up for a game.

The next game for the Hornets will be played at Cal State Northridge tonight, where they look to snap the conference losing streak. Their next home game will be Saturday against Idaho State in Hornet Gym at 7:05.