The search for consistency continues for the Sacramento State men’s basketball team after a wild week of play for the Hornets.First came a thrilling game against Pacific on Dec. 6.

With just 0.4 remaining on the clock, senior Haron Hargrave made an off-balance three that went down the hatch as the buzzer sounded to win the game 74-72 in overtime. Hargrave was carried off by Sac State fans who rushed the court after the unlikely finish.

“It’s about time,” coach Jerome Jenkins said of the buzzer-beater. “We’ve had four or five chances to make last-second shots since I’ve been here, and it seems like they never go in.”

The home cooking wasn’t savored for long, however, as the Hornets traveled to Big West favorite Long Beach State. The result was another road blowout, 76-55, in favor of the 49ers.

Sac State (5-6) fell to 1-5 on the season on the road, with the team’s closest loss being a nine-point defeat at the hands of then-ranked No. 17 Washington.

“We got drilled,” Jenkins said about the Long Beach game. “We can play with anyone at home, but I don’t think our players really understand the intensity you have to play with on the road yet.”

The Hornets have one more chance to tune up for the conference season when the team takes on Boise State on the road on Saturday.

The Big Sky season begins for Sac State when the Hornets travel to Northern Arizona on Dec. 28. Beginning with that game, the Hornets play conference opponents for the rest of the season, save for a Jan. 16 meeting with Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.

The non-conference schedule was much kinder to last year’s team as the Hornets were blown out only once, an 86-56 loss to No. 12 UCLA. The conference season was brutal for them as they lost nine of 10 at one point in the conference season. Eight of those nine losses were by eight points or less.

The team looks forward to finally playing a game that counts as far as its goal of winning a conference title.

“We are anxious for the Big Sky season to start so we can see what we can do,” Jenkins said. “We aren’t going to make any excuses.”

Benn Hodapp can be reached at [email protected]