After leading by 17 points at halftime, the Sacramento State men’s basketball team collapsed in the second half and lost its second game of the season 68-63 to McNeese State University Saturday at the Nest.

“We had the lead and they came out and gave us a real good hard punch right in the chin and that’s the way it goes,” said head coach Brian Katz. “I told our guys at halftime, they’re not going to go away.”

Junior forward Joe Eberhard led the Hornets with team-highs in points (16), rebounds (seven) and minutes (39). Junior forward John Dickson added 15 points and four rebounds and went seven for eight from the free-throw line.

The Hornets dominated the first half on both sides of the court and shot 65 percent from the field compared to the Cowboys’ 33 percent. The Hornets led points in the paint 28-12 and their bench also gave the team a spark after outscoring the Cowboys 12-6.

The momentum changer in the first half was the three offensive fouls the Hornets drew on defense, which got the crowd and team energized.

The Hornets scored eight straight points, led by junior center Konner Veteto’s five. The Hornets led 26-17 with 7:58 remaining.

As the first half dwindled down, the Hornets continued to capitalize on fouls and turnovers and found themselves up 40-23 at the half.

The Cowboys came out of halftime with a complete change in their game plan and began to full court press.

The Hornets looked flustered by the Cowboys’ press and had no answer for breaking it. The Cowboys cut the Hornets’ lead to nine within five minutes.

“We made a few turnovers on the press and that gave them confidence,” Eberhard said. “We’ve had success against breaking presses so far this season and in practice. We’ve prepared a lot. I think we were kind of surprised by the fact that we weren’t able to break it so easily tonight.”

The press and stout defense by the Cowboys caused the Hornets to rush and take bad shots. Their shooting percentage dropped to 35 percent in the second half.

Veteto said the press was causing problems for the offense and the Hornets could not regain their first-half form.

“(The press) changed the flow of the offense,” Veteto said. “I felt like we never got in a good flow like we did in the first half where we were passing and getting good shots.”

Defensively, the Hornets had no answer for the Cowboys, who shot 11-for-14 from the field to start the half. The Cowboys 6-foot-9, 285 pound senior center Rudy Turner scored eight quick points down low and cut the Hornets lead to seven with 14:42 remaining.

The Cowboys senior guard and leading scorer Patrick Richard took over after Turner’s eight points and his nine points led the Cowboys to a 14-4 run and their first lead since the 12:46 mark in the first half.

Between the Cowboys’ press and their 62 percent second-half shooting, the Hornets were not able to climb out of the hole they dug themselves into and they went on to lose the game 68-63 after being outscored 45-23 in the second half.

Richard had an all-around great game for the Cowboys with 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocks. Turner ended up with 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks.

The Cowboys responded in the second half down low where they outscored the Hornets 24-12, but what killed the Hornets was the 24 points they gave up off of their 17 turnovers.

Katz said the Cowboys’ second-half aggressiveness was a huge factor in how his team played in the second half and it caused his team to be careless with the ball.

“I thought they came out extremely aggressive (in the second half) and I thought we backed off a little bit,” Katz said. “I thought we were far more aggressive than them in the first half and they were far more aggressive than us in the second half. We had a little bit of an element of panic in our game when they started to come back, which is not good, but that’s what happened.”

The Hornets loss drops them to 3-2 on the season and their next game will be the first of a three-game road trip that starts Nov. 30 against Cal Poly. Tipoff is at 7:05 p.m.

Josh Stanley can be reached at [email protected].