After a close competition through 33 minutes of play, the Sacramento State men’s basketball team came alive with seven minutes left to beat Antelope Valley 82-60 at the Hornets Nest.
This 22-point victory by Sac State (1-2) was fueled by a 24-6 run against the Pioneers (1-4) after initially only being up 58-54 with 9:20 remaining in its home-opening game on Thursday. True-freshman guard Matt Battaglia, who finished with 12 points (3-of-4 from the three-point line), three rebounds and one assist, led the way with six points off the bench in these final minutes.
“I’m always ready to come off the bench,” Battaglia said after only 13 minutes of action on the court. “I don’t get as many minutes as a freshman, but I’m confident and I try to do my role. Shoot an open shot if I have it — just trying to play solid.”
Overall, the Hornets failed to play a solid two halves of basketball against the NAIA Division II Pioneers after turning the ball over a total of 15 times — compared to 13 for Antelope Valley — due to being too fast paced and sloppy, Sac State head coach Brian Katz said.
“We had 15 and they’re not pressed or anything so there’s no way you should have that many turnovers,” Katz said. “We had 12 offensive boards, but I really believe based on who we are and what we are, we should have more than that. We’re a big, long team and we just need to get more offensive rebounds.”
However, what the Hornets lacked in offensive rebounds, it made up for in scoring as the team posted a season-high 82 points with a 50.8 shooting percentage (31-61) from the field and 47.1 percent (8-17) from the three-point line. Junior guard Marcus Graves led the Hornets with 19 points (7-11 FG, 4-5 FT) and five assists, followed by 13 points from senior center Eric Stuteville (6-7 FG) and 13 points from sophomore forward Grant Dressler.
“I liked the way we fought in the second half,” Katz said. “Bottom line is you have to reward winning, we did win. We didn’t play great and didn’t have our ‘A’ game, but we did win so that part was good and encouraging.”
Before the Hornets’ offensive explosion in the final minutes of the second half, Antelope Valley hung around in the game — only trailing 36-33 by the end of the first half — with help from senior guards Shane Shelton (4-8 FG) and Franky Teran (5-11 FG) who scored 13 and 15 points, respectively.
“We’ve got to get better defensively,” Graves said. “We can’t have miscues and let downs, giving up open shots and layups like that. That’s going to be big for us because the offense is going to come, turnovers are going to stop, shots are going to fall, but defense has to be solid so we’ve got to improve that everyday.”
Sac State will next play cross-town rival UC Davis, which is 3-1 and averaging 76.2 points per game, at Golden 1 Center on Monday. These two teams will be the first collegiate basketball programs to ever grace the new Sacramento Kings’ homecourt.
“We can let everyone else hype up the Davis game, it being at the Golden 1 Center, but we’re just trying to go out there and get a win — it doesn’t matter who it’s against,” Graves said. “Obviously it’s a big rivalry for the fans, for the players, for the schools but it’s the next game on our schedule so we’re just trying to get a win.”
