ODGEN, Utah –When the Sacramento State men’s basketball team walks into the Dee Events Center on the campus of Weber State University Thursday night, they will have something they have not had on previous trips.

The Hornets will have confidence. 

Sac State already snapped a 12-game losing streak against the Wildcats when junior point guard Dylan Garrity sunk a 75-foot buzzer beater that made national headlines back on Feb 1 and since have won five out of its last six games. 

“To have a game that means this much this late in the year makes us feel like we are going in the right direction,”said Hornets’head coach Brian Katz. “In the past they would not have talked about us much.”

Sac State is only one game behind Northern Colorado for second place in the Big Sky Conference, but knows how hard it is to win at Weber State. The Wildcats have won 19 out of the last 20 home meetings against the Hornets and 26 straight conference home games. Their last loss came in 2011 to Eastern Washington. 

“They are the bench mark of the league,”Katz said. “They have dominated this league for however long the conference has been around and won numerous championships.”

But just because they have been successful recently does not mean the Hornets feel like they should automatically be respected.

“Every night you need to go out there and earn your respect,”said freshman center Eric Stuteville. “If you slip and you think you have that respect, it isn’t always going to be there.” 

However the outcome ends up, Katz wants his team to show its heart to every fan in the arena.

“I want every single person in the stands to say “I want to be on that team because of our energy and the way we show love for each other,”Katz said. 

Weber State is led by senior guard Davion Berry, who averages 18.9 points per game and sophomore forward Joel Bolomboy, who leads the Big Sky with 11.1 rebounds per game.

Despite a starting lineup that features two players in the top 5 in scoring and rebounds, Garrity said that Sac State’s confidence level makes this the best time to defeat the conference’s No. 1 team.

Tipoff is at 6:05 p.m.

Ryan can be reached on Twitter at @rskuhn