Maybe the Hornet men’s basketball team was too cocky Thursday night.

“We saw them warming up. They were looking at us, laughing, as if we couldn’t play,” said Idaho State guard Marquis Poole. “So that kind of got us upset.”

Maybe they weren’t ready to play.

“You’ve just got to come out and mentally prepare to know that you’ve got to go to war when the game starts,” Hornet guard Brandon Guyton said. ” We come out kind of tentative at times.”

Could they be too young?

“We’re just immature right now — very immature,” head coach Jerome Jenkins said.

One thing is for sure. The Hornets (7-10 overall, 1-3 in Big Sky) were losers, 67-62, against Idaho State (9-7, 2-1) in Hornet Gym.

The Bengals jumped out to a 41-22 half time lead, holding the Hornets to 26.9 percent shooting in the opening half. After back-to-back David Schroeder 3-pointers, the lead was pushed to 53-26 with 17:27 remaining in the second half.

“We wanted to come out, smash them in their own house and take the crowd out of it early,” Poole said. “And once we did that, we were just off and running.”

Down 27, the Hornets used a 34-8 run, capped by a Brandon Guyton 3-pointer, to cut the deficit to one point, 61-60, with 2:17 remaining. The run was keyed by Hornet forward Jimmy White, who grabbed 12 rebounds and scored 10 points in the 15 minute span.

“You look at the score; you’re at home getting blown out,” Guyton said. “That’s embarrassing. But it shouldn’t take that for us to start playing hard.”

Idaho State made 6-of-8 free throws, including three from Jeremy Brown, over the final two minutes to cool off the Hornets’ run and put the game away. Brown finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Schroeder poured in a team-high 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point land.

White finished with a game-high 16 points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots. Point guard Raashad Hooks finished with 11 points, while Guyton scored eight on 3-of-12 shooting. As a team, the Hornets shot 32.8 percent from the field and were outrebounded 49-37.

Poole finished with 14 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Bengals. The junior point guard was recruited out of high school by Jenkins, when he was an assistant coach at Eastern Washington. With 14 seconds remaining, Poole and Jenkins exchanged a few friendly words in front of the Hornet bench.

“He was just saying that they’re a better team than that, and he’ll see us in Pocatello,” Poole said. “But we’ll be waiting for them also.”

Sac State’s starting center, Tony Champion, scored only two points and grabbed three rebounds in 12 minutes of play. The junior center averaged 9.9 points over the first 12 games, but has averaged just 3.8 over the last five.

“If (Champion) shows up, then he’ll play,” said Jenkins. “If he doesn’t, then he’ll have to sit right now. I’m really not happy with Tony Champion’s play right now.”

The Hornets will next face Weber State (13-5, 3-0) on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. in Hornet Gym.