Sacramento State’s discouraging season has finally ceased, thanks to a lopsided 83-70 loss to Weber State in their first round matchup Saturday.
The loss came by way of dominant performances by Wildcats’ duo, senior guard Blaise Threatt and sophomore guard Viljami Vartiainen. Threatt and Vartiainen dissected Sac State’s defense, combining for 56 points and nine threes to carry the offensive load for Weber State.
The Hornets’ inability to close out to open shooters gave the Wildcats a green light. They gave up 12 threes on 50% shooting to a Wildcat squad that spent the season in the bottom half of the Big Sky Conference in 3-pointers made per game.
Weber State’s roaring offense stunned Sac State, as they jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first six minutes of the game.
Vartiainen’s three highest scoring games of the season have come against Sac State. He announced his presence early on, knocking down 5 threes in the first period for half of his game-high 30 points.
It’s the Threatt and Vartiainen show
The duo has combined for 23 Weber State points in the second half
Hornets are down 57-68 with 7 minutes left pic.twitter.com/6lTBJciJLe
— Mateo (@mateodavis_) March 9, 2025
Sac State head coach Michael Czepil said he was familiar with Vartiainen’s hot shooting from their previous two games against Weber State.
“He’s a really good player and he’s done this a couple times against us,” Czepil said. “If you lose him for a step, he’s tall enough to get a shot off. We spent a significant amount of time on how he gets his shots and he was still able to impact the game.”
The Wildcats ran out of momentum as the Hornets’ defense knocked them off their rhythm, forcing them into contested jumpers. The two teams traded blows late in the first half, with the Hornets hitting timely shots to end the half trailing 37-33.
Threatt had a mostly quiet first half, letting his sophomore teammate carry the scoring load. He awoke just before halftime, scoring six of Weber State’s final eight points.
After assisting on six Wildcat scores in the opening period, Threatt took over in the second half and toyed with the Hornets’ defense. The All-Conference guard scored 20 points in the final period on a blistering 67% from the field, hitting whatever shot he wanted.
it’s a saturday
but the bank is still open@threatt_blaise demanded it pic.twitter.com/FUrb3wVvV0— Big Sky Conference (@BigSkyConf) March 9, 2025
Weber State’s cutters blurred past Sac State’s defense to get open looks from inside and out scoring 46 points in the closing period.
Seniors forward Jacob Holt and guard EJ Neal made the most significant impact for the Hornets. They combined for 38 points to lead the team in scoring in their last game as members of the green and gold.
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After a quiet first half, Holt found his groove in the post, converting on easy looks inside and giving the Hornets a sliver of hope.
Holt’s 15 second-half points were the only consistent source of offense for Sac State, but the forward’s efforts were not enough to end his tenure with a win.
“I can’t thank the Sac State community enough,” Holt said. “They’ve been really supportive, and the staff has been really supportive of my game through the ups and downs. I enjoyed my time here. I met a lot of good teammates and made a lot of good friends.”
Neal started the game off hot by scoring a team-high 13 points in the first half and finished with 18, his best-scoring game during his time at Sac State.
A game-high five fouls sidelined Neal for the game late in the second half, as he was unable to carry a rhythm or score a single basket in the second.
Sac State’s seniors left it all on the court, but similar to most of their games, it wasn’t enough. This season has not been kind to the Hornets, who lost five games in a row to end their 7-25 campaign. However, Czepil is optimistic that the program is headed in the right direction.
“What we can take from this year is that we’ve got a really good group of freshmen and sophomores who can be the nucleus of a really good program in the Big Sky,” Czepil said. “The minutes they got this season will be very fruitful for them going forward. We’re excited for their development.”
