Entering the Big Sky men’s basketball season, Sacramento State was selected to finish eighth in the conference by the preseason media poll, and so far this prediction has held true.
Sac State (6-12, 3-4 Big Sky Conference), which is in danger of finishing with less than 14 wins for the first time since going 10-18 in the 2011-12 season, entered league play with three straight losses.
The Hornets’ struggles can be found in a scoring offense that averages only 70.4 points per game (ranking ninth out of 12 Big Sky teams) and a defense that allows a conference-high 40 percent conversion rate from the 3-point line.
“We just got to guard the ball better,” junior guard Marcus Graves said of a defense that ranks 340 out of 347 NCAA Division I teams in 3-point field goal percentage defense. “When they penetrate and get past our initial defense we have to help because that’s what leads to the open threes and to the kick-out threes so if we clean that up and guard the ball a little better, I think that’s going to help us out in guarding the three better.”
Of late, Sac State has reemerged after winning three of their last four games — two of which were on the road despite a previous 0-6 away record — thanks in large part to an offense averaging 51.8 percent from the field, 47.3 percent from beyond the arc and 79.7 points per game in that four-game span.
“I think in the last four to five games we’ve kind of figured out our identity,” Sac State coach Brian Katz said following his team’s 92-83 win over Montana on Jan. 21. “We’re going to play inside-out through post spacing through our bigs and we’re going to focus on that, and we want to get more paint touches.”
This sentiment has been echoed by the Hornets’ frontcourt senior duo of Nick Hornsby (25 points) and Eric Stuteville (18 points) who are coming off of a combined performance of 43 points on 14-of-18 shooting and 11 rebounds against Montana.
“One thing we’ve emphasized over the last couple weeks is getting paint touches,” Stuteville said after increasing his conference-best 64.9 field-goal percentage. “Getting paint touches is how we win the game, and just being on the same channel. (Hornsby) hitting me when I’m open, him hitting the high lows on the post. Me and Nick are best friends so we’ve got that chemistry together so it’s a duo. Justin (Strings) and Marcus are going to get their shots, but if we get our shots down low and in the paint, it’s going to be even harder to beat us.”
The Hornets, which are 4-3 in Big Sky play when scoring more points in the paint than their opponents, are also tough to beat when Stuteville, Hornsby, Strings and Graves score at least 10 points each in a single game.
Sac State is 3-1 in the Big Sky when these aforementioned statistics are reached by the foursome.
“You’ve got to have multiple scorers,” Katz said. “In a perfect world, you’d love to have five guys in double figures … you can stop one or two, but you can’t stop four so that’s really a key.”
Sac State will look to exceed early season predictions in its last 11 conference games including a matchup against Portland State, which defeated the Hornets 83-76 on Jan. 7, at the Nest on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
