As much of the crowd was still making their way to the seats of the Hornet Pavilion, a red-hot Eastern Washington offense began dissecting Sacramento State’s defense just seconds after winning the tip-off.
The Eagles set a pair of screens along the baseline, challenging head coach Mike Bibby’s man defense to stay engaged. Senior guard Prophet Johnson was screened once while trailing redshirt senior guard Tyler Powell, then screened again by Powell and darted to the perimeter. Powell would launch a high-arching three over the outstretched arms of freshman guard Taj Glover, finding the bottom of the net.
After a missed shot, the Eagles drew a double-team, leaving Johnson guarding two including Powell, who drilled a second three in just 50 seconds.
Junior guard Jahni Summers responded with a midrange jumper on the next play, but it’d take Sac State eight more minutes to record their second field goal of the game, as Eastern Washington built a 28-4 lead.
“We’ve been having a lot of rough starts,” Bibby said. “I’ll need to change the lineup up and see if that can get us a better one. We’ve played better in the second half, but when you dig yourself into a 20-point hole, it’s hard to get out of.”
The Hornets would battle back late in the game, but Eastern Washington kept them at arms-length for the duration, as Sac State dropped their fourth straight, 102-94.
The swing stat of the night was the three-point shooting of the Eagles, who made a season-high 14 at a 50% clip. Conversely, the Hornets made just five of their 17 shots from behind the arc.
“It’s easy when they’re all wide open shots,” Bibby said. “There’s no contest or nothing, just a sh***y effort on defense in the first half. These kids have to understand and realize how much effort you put in the game is what you’re going to get out of it, and you can tell what we’re getting out of it.”
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With just one ‘big’ on the roster in freshman forward Mark Lavrenov, the Hornets struggled on the glass, an issue that was exacerbated when the young big man found himself with four fouls in the beginning of the second half.
“We’re small as it is already,” Bibby said. “You have [sophomore guard Arman Madi] who’s 6-foot-7 guarding their big guys. We’re short-handed and we’re undersized.”
Madi has emerged as a real scoring threat for Sac State, in addition to being one of the team’s strongest defenders. He uses his length to create events on the defensive end of the floor, averaging 3.5 stocks per game over his last ten games, and has become more aggressive on the ball, especially when driving downhill.
“I just want to do whatever I can,” Madi said. “If that means scoring or playing defense or whatever it is, I just want to win.”
Madi scored 26 points on 10 of 15 shooting, by far his career scoring high.
For a third straight game, the Hornets played without their secondary scorer, sophomore Mikey Williams. His microwave offense would have been a major boon during Eastern’s early run.
“He’s a big-time player, a very good shot maker,” Lavrenov said. “We have to fill the void. We don’t have another guy that can really put it in the hole at that position, at that level, so it’s kind of just just filling in. We’ve got defensive guys like [Glover], who’s done a great job.”
Sac State will need to snap their losing skid and find a rhythm with just four games remaining on the schedule, including a road trip to face both the Montana schools in notoriously tough environments in Bozeman, Montana, and Missoula, Montana.
For Bibby, there’s little to take away and much to improve.
“I don’t think we can take anything from that,” Bibby said. “We gave up too many easy baskets, you’re not going to win very many games giving up 102 points. We need to realize what we’re doing and communicate. We don’t communicate.”
The Hornets take on Idaho next at the Hornet Pavilion at 7 p.m on Saturday.
