The Sacramento State men’s basketball team avoided their third-straight Big Sky Conference loss on Thursday night with a 61-59 victory over visiting Idaho State.

“It feels good to get a win,” senior guard Jameel Pugh said.

The Hornets (4-11, 1-2) were led by sophomore forward Alex Bausley, who opened the game with two 3-pointers and finished with 18 points on 4-of-9 shooting.

The Hornets jumped out to an early 15-2 lead, but the Bengals closed to 30-25 at halftime. The Hornets came out strong at the start of the second half behind Jason Harris, who drove hard to the basket on the Hornets’ first-three possessions and scored six-straight points.

Both teams battled tightly in the second half and were tied 49-49 with just five minutes to play. The Hornets closed the game by making 8-of-10 free throws in the closing minutes .

With the win, the Hornets find themselves back in the thick of the Big Sky standings.

Pugh finished with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including two alley-oop dunks and a breakaway two-hand slam that ignited the Hornets with six minutes left in the game.

Pugh’s first alley-oop dunk came in the early minutes of the game when E.J. Harris found SLAM Magazine’s 33-rated dunker flying from the baseline.

DaShawn Freeman played just 12 minutes, nursing an ailing hamstring in his left leg. He played a prominent role for the Hornets after E.J. Harris fouled out in the closing minutes on a controversial charging call.

After the game, Freemas said the injury could affect him for the rest of the season.

Sac State shot 36 percent from the floor and just 21 percent from 3-point range.

A problem with one of the two scoreboards resulted in an inadvertent horn going on off randomly throughout the game. The referee forced one of the scoreboards to be shut off, prompting head coach Jerome Jenkins to say, “I’m used to it. I live here every day.”

Hornets shot 45.8 percent in the first half, including 4-of-10 on 3-pointers.

Sac State faces Weber State on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at the Hornet’s Nest. Weber knocked the Hornets out of last year’s Big Sky tournament.