With just two games left on the regular season schedule, the Sacramento State men’s basketball team will hope to secure a Big Sky Conference postseason invitation this week. The Hornets will host two games, beginning on Thursday, Feb. 27, against Montana. The game will be held at the Hornets Nest and is scheduled to tip of at 7:05 p.m.

Sacramento State comes into the week after losing a pair of games on the road.. The Hornets are currently 10-15 overall and 4-8 in Big Sky Conference games. The team’s league record is tied for sixth in the Big Sky standings with Northern Arizona. As of now, Sacramento State owns the tie-breaker over NAU based on its win over Eastern Washington. The top six teams in the league advance to the Big Sky Tournament. The Hornets have never qualified for the tournament since joining the Big Sky in 1996-97.

Montana is currently 12-15 overall and 6-6 in league games. The Grizzlies have already earned a spot in the tournament.

• Meet the Coaches

Jerome Jenkins returns for his third season as head coach at Sacramento State. Jenkins became the 12th coach in the 53-year history of Hornet basketball when he was named to the position on March 14, 2000.

The 34-year old coach came to Sacramento State prior to the 1999-2000 season and served as the team’s top assistant coach. Jenkins previously had worked two seasons as an assistant at Eastern Washington. Prior to working at EWU, he spent four seasons at Diablo Valley College.

A native of Los Angeles, Jenkins was an all-conference point guard at L.A. City College as a freshman before playing his sophomore season at Southwestern Oregon C.C. He then transferred to Regis University in Denver, Colo., where he played his final two seasons. While with the Rangers, he led the team in assists and steals and was twice named all-conference.

Jenkins picked up his first career victory on Nov. 17 when the Hornets topped Bethany College, 103-49. He currently has a 24-55 career record.

Montana is led by Pat Kennedy. A veteran collegiate coach, Kennedy is in his first season with the Griz. He most recently coached at DePaul and Florida State.

• A Look at the Latest Action

Scott Henry scored a career-high 26 points and Jeremy Brown added 24 to lead Idaho State to a 90-83 victory over Sacramento State on Feb. 22 at Reed Gym.

The Hornets came out quickly, staking a 21-13 lead with 13:34 left in the opening period. ISU, however, rallied to take the lead (22-21) with the help of a 9-0 run which took just 2:08. The remainder of the first half saw three ties and two lead changes before the Bengals took a 44-40 lead into intermission.

The teams played even for the first seven minutes of the second half. With 12:13 showing, Jimmy White converted a layup to pull the Hornets within one, 60-59. Brown quickly responded for ISU with a layup and Rashad Kirkland stretched the lead to five with a jumper.

Henry led an Idaho State surge by scoring six points and handing out an assist to make the score 78-63 with 6:30 left.

Sacramento State made one final push and Chris Lange’s three-pointer made the score 86-81 with 51 seconds remaining. ISU, however, was able to seal the game by making four free throws.

Brandon Guyton led four Sacramento State players in double figures with a career-high 22 points. Jimmy White (17), Derek Lambeth (13) and Raashad Hooks (11) rounded out the quartet. Junior Tony Champion led the team with seven rebounds despite playing just 12 minutes. Hooks paced all players with 10 assists.

As a team, Sacramento State shot 29-of-62 overall (.468). The Hornets were also 9-of-17 (.529) from three-point range and an impressive 16-of-17 from the free-throw line.

Idaho State was slightly better from the field, converting 35-of-70 (.500) attempts.

A Look at the Hornets

• It All Comes Down to This

Entering this week, Sacramento State could finish anywhere between fourth and eighth in the Big Sky. The Hornets, who have never finished above seventh, have to match Northern Arizona in order to make the Big Sky Tournament. Both NAU and Sacramento State play host to Montana and Montana State this week.

Weber State, Eastern Washington, Idaho State and Montana have all secured tournament berths. The league’s four other teams are all still mathematically alive to qualify for the six-team field. WSU and EWU are guaranteed first-round byes while seeds 3-6 are still up for grabs.

The tournament begins on March 8 with first round games to be held at the site of No. 3 and No. 4 seeds. The third seed takes on No. 6 while the fourth seed hosts No. 5. The winners of those games will join the second seed for the semifinals which will be held at Weber State.

• It Doesn’t Add Up

A quick glace at Sacramento State’s offensive numbers at Idaho State and the team’s history this season would lead you to believe that the Hornets collected a victory. However, despite the fine shooting performance, the team fell short and could not match ISU’s 90-point effort.

For the first time this season, Sacramento State scored more than 70 points (83) and lost a game. The loss against the Bengals also marked just the second time this year that the team dropped a game when tying or outrebounding the opposition and when shooting above 40 percent from three-point range.

One number that has held true all season has been the halftime score. The Hornets are 9-0 when leading at intermission and just 1-13 when down at the break. The team’s lone win came at Northern Arizona where they were down 35-32 before rallying for an 85-81 double-overtime victory.

• Hook-in It Up

Raashad Hooks scored in double figures for the sixth time in the last seven games after tallying 11 points at Idaho State. Hooks is averaging 13.0 points per game during that stretch. If you exclude the Northern Arizona contest where he scored two, the senior is pouring in 14.8 ppg.

In the most recent action, Hooks also added 10 assists to join Jimmy White as the only Hornets to record a double-double this year.

Hooks’ best outing came against Eastern Washington where he was 6-of-11 from the field and 9-of-9 at the charity stripe. His six field goals also established a new career mark while his nine made free throws tied his career high.

He also added three rebounds, four assists and just one turnover in 31 minutes of work.

This season, Hooks ranks second on the team with an average of 10.0 points per game. He also leads the squad with 100 assists, is second with 45 steals, and is tied for third with 96 rebounds. In Big Sky play, he is averaging 11.3 ppg.

Hooks is also ranked among conference leaders where he is third in assists, fourth in steals, fourth in assist-to-turnover ration (+1.39) and seventh in free-throw percentage (.795).

• Finding His Groove

After a rough stretch through the middle of the season, Brandon Guyton appears to have found his rhythm over the past five games. The Stockton, Calif., native has scored in double-figures in three of those games, including a career-high 22 at Idaho State on Saturday.

Against the Bengals, Guyton was 8-of-14 from the field and 1-of-1 from the free-throw line. Five of his eight field goals came from behind the three-point line.

Guyton is the only Sacramento State player to record two 20-point games this year. Earlier this season, he tallied 21 with the help of seven threes at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

• Other Notes

With two steals at Idaho State, DaShawn Freeman remained atop the Big Sky standings in steals. The freshman now has 66 steals and is averaging 2.64 per game. Freeman is on pace to end the season with 71 steals, the school record was 65 by Pat Wallace set in 1989-90...Jimmy White collected one blocked shot against the Bengals but it was enough to regain the Big Sky lead. White now has 31 rejections (1.24 per game) this year which is slightly better than Portland State’s Seth Scott (1.21 per game)...as a team, the Hornets are first in the league in steals.

• A Look at the Last Meeting

Steve Horne scored a career-high 19 points and David Bell added 17 to lead Montana to a 66-59 victory over Sacramento State in front of a sellout crowd of 7,332 at Dahlberg Arena on Feb. 1.

After UM scored the first two points of the contest, Sacramento State went on a 13-2 run to claim an early nine-point lead. The Griz quickly answered with a 10-3 run of their own to pull within two (16-14). Montana eventually took an 18-17 lead after a pair of free throws from Kevin Criswell with 5:51 left in the first half.

The Grizzlies pushed their lead to five (24-19) before the Hornets received a three-pointer and a layup from Raashad Hooks to tie the game. The two teams then exchanged the lead twice before Horne gave UM a 30-29 halftime advantage on a layup with 36 seconds showing.

The lead proved to be plenty for Montana who never trailed in the second period. After the Hornets pulled within one, 40-39, the Grizzlies went on a 16-3 run over the next six minutes to end any hopes of a Sacramento State comeback.

The Hornets made one final spurt in the final minutes and Chris Lange’s three made the score 64-59 with 43 seconds left. Bell, however, made two free throws on the next possession.

Hooks and fellow senior Jimmy White led the Sacramento State offense with 15 points apiece. Lange added 11.

After shooting 61.4 percent in their win over Montana State on Jan. 30, the Hornets were just 22-of-68 from the floor against the Griz. Sacramento State’s three-point percentage was even lower as the team made 6-of-29 attempts.

Freshman DaShawn Freeman and senior Cedric Thompkins tied for the team lead with eight rebounds.

A Look at the Grizzlies

• Including the Grizzlies’ win over Sacramento State on Feb. 1, Montana is 4-2 in its last six games.

• Senior David Bell currently ranks third in the Big Sky in scoring and leads the league in three-pointers per game. Bell is scoring 17.3 points per contest while knocking down 3.22 threes per game. Bell’s biggest shot came on Dec. 16 when he hit the game-winner at Stanford.

• The Grizzles entered last year’s Big Sky Tournament as the fifth seed but won the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

• The Series

Montana leads the all-time series, 16-1. The Hornets’ lone win came during the 1998-99 season which ended the team’s 34-game losing streak.

• Who’s Up Next

The Hornets conclude the regular season on Saturday, March 1, against Montana State. The game against the Bobcats can be heard on KTKZ 1380 AM.

• Big Sky Notes

Weber State guard Jermaine Boyette and Idaho State forward Jeremy Brown were named Big Sky Conference co-Players of the Week.

Boyette averaged 20.0 points per game and helped the Wildcats to two wins. Weber State has now won 13-straight games.

Brown also averaged 20.0 points and added 7.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game. Against the Hornets, he had 24 points and six boards.

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