Sacramento State men’s basketball’s four-game winning streak came to an end Thursday night against Eastern Washington University.

Though the Hornets rallied from a 21-point deficit in the first half, the Eagles responded with a 21-12 run in the final seven minutes to defeat Sac State, 85-72.

Not only did the four-game winning streak end, but it also broke a four-game winning streak against Eastern Washington dating back to 2012.

The Eagles started the game on an 11-2 run and extended their lead to as much as 37-16 with 4:41 left in the first half. 

Hornets’ sophomore guard Cody Demps kept Eastern Washington’s leading scorer Tyler Harvey at bay with only five points, but Parker Kelly and Martin Seiferth scored 25 of the team’s 45 first-half points. Sac State trailed by 16 at the intermission.

While Sac State has seen teams outscore them in the second half during the majority of the season, the Hornets made a run of their own as they made eight straight shots to cut the deficit to 47-41 with 16:19 remaining in the game.

After Harvey led the Eagles back once again to a double-digit lead with three 3-pointers, the Hornets made a final run and got the game within four points when junior guard Mikh McKinney hit a pair of free throws with 7:54 left.

McKinney finished with a team-high 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Junior point guard Dylan Garrity and junior forward Zach Mills also had 10 points.

The Hornets drop their record to 10-12, 6-7, moving them into a three-way tie for seventh place in the Big Sky Conference.  

Their two-game road trip concludes Saturday when they travel to Portland State where Hornets’ head coach Brian Katz said is a place where the team has struggled. Their last win came Feb. 4, 2006.

Tipoff is at 7:05 p.m.

Ryan can be reached on Twitter at @rskuhn