After a 64-47 loss to UC Davis, the Sacramento State men’s basketball team has taken silver against the Aggies for the second straight season at the Golden 1 Center.

The Hornets (1-3) — which only shot 32 percent (16-of-50) from the field — began their 116th meeting against UC Davis (3-1) with a 4-0 advantage three minutes into the game but then quickly fell behind 13-8 during Tuesday’s Causeway Classic.

Sac State senior forward Justin Strings brought the score within three points with a driving layup before the Aggies went on a 13-0 run to take a 26-10 lead with 5:25 left in the first half. UC Davis senior forward Chima Moneke, who ended his night with 19 points and 15 rebounds, led the charge with six points during this scoring streak.

“They beat us at the line, on the boards and in the turnover battle, so you saw who the aggressors were,” Strings said after finishing with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 10 turnovers. “We tried to contain (Moneke), I think we did a pretty good job of that, but overall, I thought they executed pretty well.”

A majority of this execution came from UC Davis junior guard Siler Schneider, who shot 50 percent from the field and 66 percent from beyond the arc after he notched 10 of his 16 total points in the first 19 minutes of the game. This effort, along with Sac State turning the ball over 12 times, helped the Aggies establish a 36-20 advantage by the end of the first half.

“Turnovers, easy missed shots around the basket, kind of hurt us,” Sac State coach Brian Katz said, referring to the slow start. “But again, I thought their gameplan was great. They really accounted for Justin, and they were solid when we came back, didn’t panic, so give them credit.”

The Hornets issued two separate second-half comeback attempts — the first being a 12-0 run, and the second being an 8-0 run — to bring the score to 42-40 with 7:44 remaining in the contest. Junior guards Jordan Tolbert and Kevin Hicks both contributed six points each during this stretch, but it was Strings who brought in six points and three rebounds to help the push continue.

“(Strings is) a really good player, and coach Katz does a nice job of putting him in different spots to be effective and get the ball,” UC Davis coach Jim Les said. “So, not only did our on-the-ball defense on him have to be good — and (junior forward Garrison Goode) and Chima did a nice job — but our help defense, I thought, was really good, which caused some of the turnovers, and we mixed up some coverages.”

UC Davis, which lost four of its five starters from last year’s team that beat Sac State 81-72, answered back with a 15-0 run at the 1:45 mark en route to a 64-47 final score.

“This game showed it’s a game of runs, and we were able to fight back and start some runs of our own,” Schneider said. “It’s a big win, especially against a rival like that.”

Sac State — which is now 5-5 against the Aggies in Katz’s 10-year tenure at the helm — will next play San Diego State in the Wooden Legacy Tournament at 10 p.m. Thursday in Fullerton, California.