When the buzzer rang for halftime at the Alex G. Spanos Center in Stockton on Saturday, Sacramento State walked off the court tied with University of the Pacific, 32-32. Both teams entered their locker rooms, trying to figure out how to break the deadlock.
Unfortunately for the Hornets, shots stopped falling after halftime, and the Tigers didn’t let up.
Pacific outscored Sac State 36-22 in the second half, ending the game with a final score of 68-54. The loss saw the Hornets drop their record to 4-5, that figure including a 1-5 record against Division I opponents.
With nine minutes and 39 seconds left in the game, junior guard Jahni Summers stepped into a pass from sophomore guard Mikey Williams and made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to nine, 54-45.
After this point, however, the Hornets didn’t manage to register a made field goal attempt until there were just 56 seconds left. During that stretch, Sac State registered seven points, all on free throws split between Williams and sophomore guard Jayden Teat.
The Hornets shot 6-30 in the second half, marking just 20%. Head coach Mike Bibby said that poor efficiency alters the team’s performance in the other parts of the game as well.
“A lot of the time, when we stop making shots, everything else goes,” Bibby said. “It affects our rebounding. It affects our defensive rotations. It affects everybody.”
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Bibby also said that having a poor shooting night shouldn’t completely stop the team from winning a game.
“If we make shots it’s a different game, but we can’t let [not making shots] impact the rest of our game,” Bibby said. “There’s going to be nights where you don’t shoot the ball well. Every game has to have an effort rebounding and a purpose on defense.”
Sac State was led in points, assists and steals by Williams, who tallied 14, six and three in each respective category. He was followed closely behind in points by sophomore guard Jayden Teat at 12, and tied in steals by senior guard Prophet Johnson.
The Hornets were owned on the glass, getting out-rebounded 49-32 by the Tigers. The 32 rebounds put up by Sac State is the team’s lowest number of the season thus far.
For the Tigers, fifth-year forward Elias Ralph kept a steady stream of scoring throughout the game. Ralph played all 40 minutes and ended the contest with 22 points, leading all players in the stat.
Pacific had an inverse reaction to the Hornets after the first half, with the Tigers’ shooting percentage rising from 36.7% to 44.1% in the second. The largest their lead got to was 15, during Sac State’s cold second half.
The Hornets are still without senior forward Jeremiah Cherry, who has yet to come back from the knee injury he suffered in Sac State’s game against UC Los Angeles on Nov. 18. In his place, freshman forward Mark Lavrenov got his third consecutive start, and senior forward Jeremiah Nyarko saw a slightly increased minute total from his debut game against San Francisco State on Nov. 25.
Sac State travels to Waco, Texas on Tuesday, Dec. 2 to take on the Baylor Bears of the Big 12 Conference at 5 p.m. PST. The Bears are currently 5-1, with their only loss coming to No. 14 St. John’s. They’ll take on sophomore guard Cameron Carr, who’s currently ranked eighth in the country for points-per-game.
