In years past, Sacramento State’s men’s basketball team has struggled on its home floor, but tonight was the start of a new year.  

After finishing the last two seasons with a combined conference record of 5-12 on their home court, the Hornets started the 2012-13 Big Sky season with a 62-57 victory against Montana State.

The win also marks the best start for Sac State since the 2005-06 team which also started 6-3. 

“We’ve struggled the last two years getting wins in the Big Sky during the first half of the season,” said Hornets head coach Brian Katz. 

Katz held a meeting with his team this week to try to figure out how to play better at The Nest. 

“We feel that to be a really good team we have to win at home,” Katz said. “We’ve played better on the road.”

The Hornets started the game jumping out to a 14-6 lead when guards Mikh McKinney and Dylan Garrity hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the first half. 

“I played horribly in my last game, so I was just looking to find myself,” said McKinney, who finished with 21 points and 6 rebounds. “I just got it going a little bit and started attacking.”

McKinney scored a season-low 5 points on 1-13 shooting on Dec 10 against San Jose State, but in the conference opener he was a perfect 3-3 from behind the arc and 10-11 from the free throw line. 

Sac State’s lead was cut down to a single point with seven minutes remaining, but the team would regroup and finish the half on a 10-4 run. 

Despite McKinney only scoring seven points in the second half, the Hornets’ offense did not sputter getting key shots from forward John Dickson and established an inside presence from center Konner Veteto.

Montana State’s zone defense did not faze Veteto as he scored 19 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. 

“We worked on our zone offense, but we didn’t know they were going to use it the entire game,” Veteto said. “They stopped doubling down on me in the post which also helped.”

With Sac State leading by 14 points at one point, the lead slowly diminished down to three when Montana State’s Antonio Biglow hit a 3-pointer from the top of the circle with 58 seconds left.

The Hornets kept their composure, however, hitting 5-6 clutch free throws to finish the game.

Sac State returns to The Nest Friday night when it faces defending conference champion Montana. Last year, the Hornets were swept by the Grizzlies, and Katz said he knows his team is the underdog.

“In the scheme of college basketball we know it’s us against the world. You always have to have that mentality,” Katz said. “The underdog always has an advantage.”

Tipoff is at 7:05 p.m.

Ryan can be reached on Twitter at @rskuhn