A 15 point differential from the free throw line fueled Nevada’s offense and put a halt to Sacramento State’s late game efforts of a comeback as they dropped their season opener 77-63. Sac State committed 12 fouls in the first half and put Nevada in the bonus allowing them to add six points from the line in 1-and-1 situations.

This game got off to a slow start. A mix of good defense and stagnant offense for both teams resulted in a combined eight points in the first four minutes. The offense began to pick up as teams traded buckets and Sac State trailed by three with a minute to go in the first half.

The game’s leading scorer Nevada’s senior guard Jarod Lucas, then went on a 6-0 run by himself to close out the half and Sac State trailed 39-30 at the half.

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Despite the 12 fouls and nine turnovers, the shooting from beyond the arc is what kept Sac State within striking distance. Sac State shot 35% from downtown in the first half. With a team that mainly consists of guards, shooting the ball from the outside is pivotal for Sac State.

“It’s natural the home team gets to the foul line more than the road team,” Sac State head coach David Patrick said. “You try to win the battle from the 3-point line, and I think if we make a couple more, we have a chance to win.”

The second half got off to a terribly slow start for Sac State. They scored on a layup 15 seconds into the half but then went into a four-minute drought that allowed Nevada to open their lead up to 14.

The largest deficit Sac State faced came halfway through the second half, as they found themselves down 17, with just over 10:30 to go. Nevada tried to land their knockout punch and put the game away, but Sac State would not let off the gas.

As Nevada began to pull away, junior guard Zee Hamoda picked up three fouls in under two minutes and that sent him to the bench with four total fouls. Hamoda was the leading scorer for Sac State when he was forced to sit at the 9:42 mark of the second half.

When your leading scorer goes to the bench, the offense must be found somewhere else, and that is exactly what happened.

Sac State went on a 12-0 run following Hamoda’s departure, where the only points the Hornets allowed were a pair of free throws. This run was spearheaded by sophomore forward Duncan Powell, a transfer from North Carolina A&T, who had seven of his 15 points, and four of his eight rebounds during this run.

“Every basketball player knows the game will come to you,” sophomore forward Duncan Powell said. “I did the things I could control and everything else just came to me.”

Powell said the energy coming from the rest of the team helped him become more comfortable and feels like he is finally in a spot with people around him who believe in him.

“When we started getting stops, we were able to push and run,” Patrick said. “That’s what got us back into the game.”

With this run, the score was now 61-56 and the Hornets had momentum.

The final straw seemed to be when freshman center Bowyn Beatty threw down a dunk at the 2:33 mark to cut the Nevada lead to eight, but landed awkwardly and left the game with an apparent ankle injury. The injury is not serious as Beatty practiced yesterday.

With the 7-foot Beatty on the bench, Nevada went on a 6-0 insurance run that put the game away and sent the Hornets home with their first loss. It was echoed amongst the team that small tweaks must happen, but no drastic changes to how the team played overall.

“If we take that four-minute stretch and play like that for close to 40 minutes we’ll come out with the result we want,” Powell said. “We can play with anybody if we play like that.”

One loss won’t seem like too much as the season goes along, especially to a good Nevada team that made it to the tournament last year. The belief amongst the program is that a berth in the NCAA tournament is an achievable goal for this team.

“I feel like we’ve got a great chance to go to the tournament,” senior guard Brandon Betson said. “Tournament or bust and we’re going full throttle.”

Sac State will be back on the road again Friday, as they head to Palo Alto to take on Stanford.

“I chose these two opponents to start the season because we want the chance to play in March,” Patrick said. “I wanted our guys to see what that feels like early in the season.”