Sac State men’s basketball defeats UC Davis 58-55

Graves hits layup with 10 seconds left to lift Hornets over Aggies

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Thomas Frey - The State Hornet

Sac State junior point guard Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’afa dribbles during the Hornets 58-55 win over UC Davis Tuesday at Golden 1 Center.

Thomas Frey, Sports editor

Sacramento State senior point guard Marcus Graves hit a game-winning basket with 10.1 seconds to give Sac State a 58-55 win over University of California, Davis Tuesday at the Golden 1 Center.

Sac State [2-0] led at the end of the first half and most of the game before UC Davis [1-5] took a lead with 11:35 left in the game. Twice in the final 10 minutes of the game, the Aggies had leads of at least five points, but twice, the Hornets stormed back and got back in the game.

Graves got to the bucket throughout the night, led the team with eight assists, pulled down six rebounds and stole the ball four times. But the statistic that stood out for the fifth-year senior the most was his eight turnovers and four fouls.

RELATED: Marcus Graves records first triple double in Sac State history

With the game tied at 41-41 with less than 11 minutes to play in the game, Graves recorded his fourth steal of the game. Moments later, he was called for his fourth foul of the game.

He came out of the game for about two minutes. While Graves was out of the game, the Hornets could not get good shots off and quickly fell down 48-43. With 7:57 to play, Graves came back in and distributed the ball to junior center Joshua Patton and sophomore forward Ethan Esposito who tied the game up 49-49 with six minutes to play.

UC Davis senior guard Siler Schneider, who had 16 points in the Aggies 64-47 win over the Hornets last season at Golden 1 Center, drilled two 3-pointers in a row to give the Aggies a 55-49 lead with 4:50 to play in the game.

With a six-point lead, UC Davis head coach Jim Les said that the Aggies needed a stop on defense there to win the game, but on the ensuing possession, sophomore forward Bryce Fowler hit his first 3-pointer of the night to cut the Aggies lead in half.

“We needed one more big defensive stop and couldn’t come up with it,” Les said. “We give them credit that they made the plays when they needed to.”

Led by Patton and junior guard Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’afa, the Hornets didn’t allow the Aggies to score the rest of the game. Patton blocked Aggie shot attempts with 3:26 left to play and again with 2:19 to play that led to a steal by Graves and a score by junior guard Osi Nwachukwu to cut the lead to 55-54.

With under a minute to play, the Hornets stopped the Aggies and with 20 seconds left to play, Graves drove down the lane and scored a layup with 10.1 seconds to go. The Aggies then drove down the court and Schneider narrowly missed a layup and Patton grabbed the rebound with 1.4 seconds to play to seal the game.

In the win, the Hornets turned the ball over 21 times, eight of which were by Graves.

“We turned the ball over way to much,” Graves said. “I knew it, two games, even with a triple double I don’t think I played well at all.”

RELATED: Preview: Graves and Patton lead a now-healthy men’s basketball team

Additional reporting by Shaun Holkko