Sacramento State head coach Brian Katz felt confident all week his team was going to make the postseason.  

He even bought a brand new suit last Sunday and told the team he would wear it during the first round of the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

His purchase was not in vain, as the Hornets defeated Montana State 84-59 and are now headed to their first postseason experience in eight years.

“We struggled together and now we won together,” said junior guard Mikh McKinney. “It was an emotional game knowing we can continue our season.”

Not only did Sac State have to defeat the Bobcats, but Eastern Washington also had to lose for the Hornets to be assured a spot. The Eagles lost to Weber State by four points.

“All along we wanted to get into the tournament,” Katz said. “It was always our goal, even when we were terrible.”

Since Katz took over the program in 2008, the Hornets have improved their win total from two during his first year to back-to-back seasons of 14 wins each. 

McKinney said this was a win for seniors Joey Quigley, Jordan Salley and Kendall Groom, who were recognized before the game.

“The only thing that was going through my head was to get the seniors out of here on a good note,” McKinney said. 

The Hornets were coming off their biggest home loss since they lost to UC Irvine back on Nov. 30 and attacked quickly as they jumped out to an early 18-8 lead when junior point guard Dylan Garrity hit one of his four 3-pointers of the game. He finished with 12 points and six assists.

Sac State increased its lead to 17 points as freshman center Eric Stuteville made a layup. He finished with 10 points in the first half on 5-6 shooting.

“Although Eric is a freshman, he has a lot of skill,” Katz said. “Most centers don’t know how to guard the on ball, but he can shoot it [from the perimeter]. He is so versatile.”

In the second half, the Hornets extended their lead up to as many as 30 points with balanced scoring by McKinney, Garrity, Stuteville, freshmen forward Nick Hornsby and sophomore guard Cody Demps, who all finished in double digits. Demps set a new career high with 17 points and added four rebounds and four assists.

In the final three minutes, Sac State let its seniors receive some playing time with all three finishing the game with at least two points. The crowd was brought to its feet as Quigley dunked the ball on an alley-oop from Groom.

“We talked about doing it before the game even started,” Quigley said. “I passed up the 3-pointer on the possession before, and when I saw Kendall (Groom) get the steal, I knew he was going to throw it up there.”

The Hornets travel to Ogden, Utah for the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Tournament on Thursday, when they face the University of North Dakota, but to them, it is just another game.

“We are just going to take it one game at a time,” Salley said. “We are just going to go out there, play our hearts out and see what the outcome is.” 

Tipoff is at 1:05 p.m and can be viewed at BigSkyConf.com or on the Watch Big Sky App.

Ryan can be reached on Twitter at @rskuhn