Box Score
RENO, Nev. (March 7, 2017) – The Sacramento State men’s basketball team lives by the adage that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
The Hornets dominated the boards in a 91-76 win over Idaho State in a first-round game of the Big Sky Conference men’s basketball tournament Tuesday evening at the Reno Events Center.
Sac State (13-17) advanced to face No. 2 seed Eastern Washington in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 5:35 p.m. PST. Idaho State finished its season at 5-26.
The Hornets owned a 46-28 rebounding advantage and pounded the offensive boards for a 25-2 edge in second-chance points. Hornets center Eric Stuteville had seven of those offensive rebounds before fouling out. Nick Hornsby and Marcus Graves led Sac State in scoring with 18 points apiece and Justin Strings added 17.
Senior guard Ethan Telfair led the Bengals with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Brandon Boyd added 15 points and Geno Luzcando 14.
Idaho State owned a 43-41 lead at halftime and pushed that advantage of 51-47 on an 18-foot jumper by Telfair, who was 6 of 12 from the field and 9 of 10 from the line. But that was the high-water mark for the Bengals.
Stuteville sank back-to-back hook shots – the second resulted in a three-point play – to give Sac State the lead at 52-51. Izaya Mauriohooho-le’afa swished a 3-pointer to make it 59-52 and Joshua Patton had a put-back that turned into a three-point play to give the Hornets a 62-54 lead. Moments later Graves followed up his own miss for a 65-56 lead, giving the Hornets a 20-0 edge in second-chance points with 8:03 to play.
Then it was Hornsby’s turn to take over. He hit a fall-away jumper along the baseline, scored on a layup on a fast break, then converted a three-point play on yet another second chance to make it 79-65 with 3:51 remaining. His most spectacular shot came on a fall-away at the shot-clock buzzer that gave the Hornets an insurmountable 87-74 lead with 1:36 to play. Sac State held on from there.