The Sacramento State men’s basketball team had comfortable control over their opening-night game more than once, but late in the game the Hornets slipped and allowed the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners to comeback and eventually win at the end of overtime 80-78.

With 13 seconds remaining in the game, the Hornets led 72-67, but a clutch 3-point shot and three foul shots to follow from the Roadrunners’ Alex Johnson tied the game 73-73 at the end of regulation.

Entering the game Johnson was 1-5 shooting from the three point line, and 3-10 from inside the arc, but on the hardwood of The Nest at Sac State Johnson was 6-11 for three and 6-12 for two.

“The kid Johnson, today was his day,” said Hornets’ head coach Brian Katz. “He did a nice job shooting it… The player who’s really good is (Donavan Bragg), really good player, and (Stephon Carter) so those were the two guys we were focusing on, and we weren’t ignoring (Johnson) but he just got it going today. He played really well.”

The game for the Roadrunners was won from behind the three point line. A few feet behind the three point line.

“They shot the ball well today,” said sophomore John Dixon. “No. 3 shot the ball very well. He was shooting from outside, past the NBA three so it’s hard to test, but I guess it was just their night.”

The Roadrunners racked up 10 three-point shots leading to a 38.5 3-point shooting percentage, while the Hornets sunk only three three-pointers out of 16 taken. In the overtime game, dominance from behind the three point line proved to be the key to victory for the Roadrunners.

“They had a couple players who went off and that’s basketball,” said junior Alpha N’Diaye. “Sometimes there’s just somebody who’s going to make the shot you cant do anything about it.”

The Hornets strategized in a very different way. While the Roadrunners were sinking threes the Hornets were doing their work in the paint. The Hornets put up 32 through regulation in the paint, to the Roadrunners 24.

With only a few seconds remaining in overtime though, the Hornets trailed by two. Duro Bjegovic was open in the paint, he received an open pass and went to put in the game tying lay-up but his shot was blocked against the backboard, the last second ticked its way from the clock and the Roadrunners celebrated their first victory of the young season.

In overtime the Hornets had no points from the paint. The Roadrunners had two.

The Hornets are now 0-1 on the season and will play their next game on Tuesday night against Bethany College in The Nest.

“We just need to learn from the mistakes we made defensively at the end of the game,” N’Diaye said. “We’ll be fine.”

AJ Taylor can be reached at [email protected]