It has already been an adventure for the young and seemingly talented Sacramento State men’s basketball team, and it is only seven games into the season.

Blowout after blowout has made it difficult to gauge just who or what this team is. The Hornets (4-3) have wins of 34, 21, 35 and 23 points. On the other hand, they’ve lost games by 36, 25 and nine points.

Scoring has not been a problem for the Hornets as they have piled up games of 93, 100 and 107 points. The team is led in scoring by sophomore Loren Leath’s 18.6 points per game. Seniors Haron Hargrave (18.0) and Alex Bausley (14.7) round out the team’s top scorers.

On Nov. 14, Sac State held a 34-27 lead at the half over the visiting Dons of San Francisco, only to be blitzed by a 23-0 second half run that drowned the Hornets to the tune of an 89-64 loss.

With all that has gone right, it was that early collapse that may eventually save the team’s season. A locker room meeting after the game lasted nearly an hour, and perhaps lit a fire under the team.

“I think that game was a positive,” coach Jerome Jenkins said. “We watched a lot of film and it was a learning process for us.”

Since that game, the team has outscored its opponents by 70 points in four games. Not letting teams storm back against them has been a point of emphasis, Jenkins said.

“The game against Davis was pretty much the same as the last two years,” Jenkins said of the Hornets jumping out early to a double-digit lead. “But this time we didn’t let them come back.” Sac State won the game 100-77 on Saturday.

Perhaps the most compelling proof of the team’s improvement since the San Francisco game was a road game against then 15th-ranked Washington on Nov. 19. Sac State held a lead of as many as 13 points in the first half before the Huskies stormed back to win a hard-fought game 83-74.

“It just shows that there is a lot of parity in college basketball as you see with all these upsets lately,” Jenkins said, referring to a rash of upsets early on in the college basketball season.

Something that will need to improve is the point guard play as the season progresses.

“The point guards need to take better care of the ball,” Jenkins said. “Out of every three turnovers, probably two of them are unforced.”

Starting point guard transfer Rod Adams has 25 turnovers in seven games while his backup, freshman Alonzo Young, has 17.

Fortunately for the Hornets, the defense is forcing a huge number of turnovers, but it isn’t enough. Opponents are averaging 23 turnovers per game as opposed to 15.9 by Sac State. Jenkins credits newly-appointed team leader Bausley for the hounding Hornets defense.

Bausley leads the team with 20 steals, followed by Adams with 16 and forward/center Angel Alamo with 12. The Hornets have out-thieved opponents by an 86-44 margin.

“(Bausley) has been making sure to keep on the guys about playing good defense,” Jenkins said. “The players are starting to realize that if you play defense you have a chance to force mistakes.”

The Hornets begin stretch of six out of seven games on the road at 5:05 p.m. today at Illinois State.

Benn Hodapp can be reached at [email protected]