The Sacramento State men’s basketball team lost its third consecutive game 82-53 to the University of Oklahoma Friday at the Lloyd Noble Center.

Junior forward Joe Eberhard and senior guard Heath Hoffman led the Hornets with 10 points each and freshman point guard Dylan Garrity led the team in assists for the seventh straight game with four.

The Hornets never led in the game and were down by double digits after four minutes. The Hornets briefly pulled within eight points at 21-13 but the Sooners regained their double digit lead a minute later during a 9-0 run.

The Sooners led by 35 points at one point in the game and completely dominated the Hornets on both ends of the court.

“They were just hitting shots and took us out of our game plan,” Eberhard said.

The Hornets turned the ball over 22 times.

“We turned the ball over way too much, which led to fast break dunks and easy points for them,” Garrity said. “They took us out of our game and we didn’t run our stuff the way we usually do.”

The lone bright spot for the Hornets was their 3-point shooting. The Hornets, who have shot 30 percent from beyond the arc this season, were 6-for-11 against the Sooners.

The Sooners out-rebounded the Hornets 29-19, led in steals 16-7 and led in assists 22-13.

The Sooners were led by sophomore guard Cameron Clark who had 18 points, three rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals. The two other Sooners in double figure points were junior guard Steven Pledger (15) and junior forward Andrew Fitzgerald (13).

Garrity said playing at a Big-12 school did not affect how the Hornets played; it was the skill set of the Sooners that caused problems.

“At Washington State I was very nervous, but ever since then, playing on the road is just another game on a different court,” Garrity said. “Plus, the 7,000 people that were there tonight weren’t even loud so it didn’t really bother or affect me personally at all. It was just their size and athleticism that bothered us.”

The Hornets loss drops them to 3-4 on the season. They will look to end their three-game skid when they play at CSU Bakersfield Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.

 

Josh Stanley can be reached at [email protected].