Sacramento State withstood Eastern Washington’s second half run to get its second conference win of the year and jump three spots in the conference standings.

The Hornets were tested as they let a once 21-point lead dwindle down to just six, but held on to a 75-64 win Saturday night at The Nest.

Sac State now sits in a four-way tie with Montana, Portland State and Eastern Washington in sixth place in the Big Sky Conference.

“This win was absolutely huge,” said junior forward Zach Mills. “We stuck to the game plan.”

Mills stopped an Eagles’ 14-2 second half run when he made a 3-pointer with 4:09 left to put the Hornets ahead, 63-54. Their lead would drop lower than nine points for the remainder of the game. 

“Coach Katz would have screamed at me if I didn’t shoot it,” Mills said with a smile. “I was open and I was lucky that my teammates trust me [enough to make the shot.]”

Mills is currently second on the team with 17 3-point baskets and is ninth in the conference shooting 42 percent behind the arc. 

The Hornets started the game jumping out to a 20-11 lead during the first 10 minutes. Although Eastern Washington tied the game with four minutes left in the first half, Sac State outscored the Eagles 13-3 to take a 38-28 lead into halftime.

Eastern Washington senior guard Tyler Harvey, who entered the game averaging 21.5 points per game, was held to just three points on 1-7 shooting in the first half.

“He is one of the best shooters we have seen,” said Sac State head coach Brian Katz. 

In the second half, Sac State quickly doubled their halftime lead to as much as 21-points before Katz started to slow down his offense.

“They were pressuring us, so we couldn’t run our backdoor (plays),” Katz said. “ We needed to spread the floor. It’s hard to guard someone 50 feet from the basket.”

During that time, Eastern Washington started on a 13-3 run led by Harvey’s 10 points over a span of six minutes. 

“When teams are starting to come back, we can’t get rattled by the momentum swing,” said junior guard Dylan Garrity, who finished with a game-high 18 points. “We had to focus on the small details that could get us some points.”

Despite the Eagles comeback attempt, Sac State held on to win its fourth straight game against Eastern Washington and its fourth at home this season.

Sophomore guard Cody Demps also finished with 10 points and six rebounds and junior guard Mikh McKinney had nine points and seven rebounds. 

Sac State travels to North Dakota on Thursday and Northern Colorado next Saturday before finishing the season with eight out of the remaining 12 games at home.

Mills said the four-game road trip that started the conference schedule two weeks ago has helped the freshmen and newcomers adjust to life on the road.

Sac State has never won in North Dakota and its last win at Northern Colorado was two seasons ago.

Tipoff for both games are at 5:05 p.m. and 6:05 p.m., respectively.

Ryan can be reached on Twitter at @rskuhn