The Sacramento State men’s basketball team fell to the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks Thursday night at the Hornet’s Nest, 63-42.

The Hornets are still in contention for the sixth and final playoff spot in the Big Sky Conference. Eastern Washington University (5-9) is holding onto the final spot as it lost at home Thursday to Montana State University 60-56.

Sac State fell to 7-19 overall and 4-10 in the Big Sky with two games left on the schedule. The Lumberjacks improve to 17-10 overall and 8-6 in conference play.

The crowd of 1,005 on Greek night saw the Hornets get down in the scoring column quickly as Northern Arizona rattled off eight unanswered points to start the game.

Hornet head coach Brain Katz quickly called a timeout four minutes into the first half to regroup his team.

In the timeout, Katz pulled his starters together and said they needed to keep their heads up and look for fast break points.

“We told the guys to continue to be aggressive and look for easy opportunities to score,” Katz said.

The Hornets answered back with their first point coming from the free throw line as guard Walter Jackson sank one of two free throws 4:30 into the game.

Sac State’s largest lead was four points when the Hornets went up 12-8 with 11:30 left to play in the first half.

The Hornets struggles continued in the second half as Northern Arizona outscored Sac State 37-24.

Lumberjacks guard Cameron Jones led all scorers with 23 points, four assists and two rebounds. Sac State forward Duro Bjegovic came off the bench and added 12 points, five rebounds and two assists.

Bjegovic attributed the loss to Northern Arizona’s defense.

“They played really good defense tonight. They held us to 46 points,” Bjegovic said. “We just need to work on our offense. Our defense was okay. We only allowed 63 points, but most of the work needs to be on offense.”

The Hornets host Weber State at 7:05p.m. on Saturday night at the Hornets’ Nest.

“This game against Weber is a must-win game. They are a different kind of with a different kind style of play,” Katz said.

You can reach Matt Harrington at [email protected]