MEN'S BASKETBALL CONTINUES ROAD TRIP THURSDAY AT PORTLAND STATE
12/31/2007
GAME PREVIEW
Sacramento State (2-9, 0-1) and Portland State (7-7, 0-1) will square off in both team’s second Big Sky Conference game of the season Thursday, Jan. 3, at 7:05 p.m. inside the Stott Center...Portland State leads the all-time series, 20-10, but Sacramento State has won three of the last four meetings...last season, the teams split two games with each winning at home...Sacramento State opened its conference season with a 74-60 loss at Northern Colorado on Friday, and Portland State opened with a 58-57 loss at Eastern Washington on Dec. 22...Thursday’s game can be heard live on KSAC 1240 AM and www.hornetsports.com with 11th year Hornet play-by-play man Steve McElroy calling all the action...live video of the game can be obtained for a fee at www.bigskytv.org...Sacramento State is looking to avoid its first 0-2 start in conference play since the 2004-05 season...the Hornets have struggled badly on the road, posting an 0-7 record this year and 14 straight losses dating back to last year...the Hornets’ last victory away from home came over a year ago - 74-70 at Northern Colorado on Dec. 30, 2006...Hornet head coach Jerome Jenkins has used the same starting lineup each of the last three games - Randy Adams and Justin Williams at forward, and Vinnie McGhee, Jr., Loren Leath and Clark Woods at guard (McGhee runs the point).
A LOOK AT THE LAST GAME
Northern Colorado’s Sean Taibi scored 11 of his game-high 24 points during the final 4:09 of the contest to break open a close game and lead the Bears to a 74-60 victory over Sacramento State on Friday evening at the Butler-Hancock Pavilion.
After a driving layup from Vinnie McGhee, Jr., brought the Hornets to within six points (63-57) of the Bears’ lead with 4:54 remaining, Taibi proceeded to score Northern Colorado’s final 11 points. The Bears finished the final 4:09 of the game on an 11-3 run to provide the final 14-point margin of victory. In a game which featured eight lead changes and five ties, the 14-point margin of victory was one point shy of Northern Colorado’s largest lead of the night (15, with 33 seconds remaining).
The hot shooting of McGhee in the second half kept the Hornets close. After Northern Colorado took a 12-point lead (49-37) with 12:30 remaining, McGhee scored 16 of the Hornets’ next 20 points, with four of those buckets coming on three-pointers. His layup at the 4:54 mark got the Hornets to within six points, but the team went just 1-for-4 from the field, 1-for-3 from the free throw line and committed a pair of turnovers during the final 4:17 to allow the Bears to coast to victory.
Sacramento State, which trailed 31-28 at the half, was badly outrebounded, 43-23, and Northern Colorado outscored the Hornets, 13-0, in second chance points. The Hornets forced the Bears into 24 turnovers, but committed 19 of their own.
Joining Taibi in double figures for the Bears were Jabril Banks (16 points, game-high eight rebounds), Neal Kingman (11) and Jefferson Mason (11).
McGhee led the Hornets with a season-high 19 points as the freshman shot 7-of-12 from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. McGhee scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half, and had exactly half of Sacramento State’s 32 points during the second stanza. Senior Clark Woods (11 points) was the only other Hornet in double figures.
Junior Randy Adams led the Hornets with five rebounds. Senior Justin Williams added four points, three rebounds, two assists and a game-high four steals.
INJURIES TAKE THEIR TOLL
Sacramento State players have missed a combined total of 37 games this season due to injury. Guard Yannick Kasongo (knee) has missed 10 games, guard Roderick Adams (ankle) and centers Wandji Aboubakar and Curtis Harrison (hand) have missed seven games, and guard Alonzo Young (both knees) has missed six games. Kasongo is out for the season, Harrison and Adams are out indefinitely, and Young just returned to play 18 minutes at Northern Colorado after missing five straight games.
Injuries have hit so hard that Jenkins decided to promote 6-3, 165-pound freshman point guard Spenser Schulte (pronounced SHULL-tee) from the practice squad to the active roster prior to the Oregon game. Schulte, who has played a combined 10 minutes over the last three games, averaged 12.9 points per game and shot 49.0 percent from the floor last season for Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, Calif.
POINT GUARD SHUFFLE
Sacramento State opened the season with four players on the roster who were each expected to see time at point guard, comprised of freshman Vinnie McGhee, Jr., sophomores Alonzo Young and Yannick Kasongo, and senior Roderick Adams. However, injuries have knocked Young, Kasongo and Adams out of action, although Young returned to the lineup against Northern Colorado.
That left true freshman McGhee as the lone healthy point guard on the team. The injuries forced head coach Jerome Jenkins to, at first, use junior swingman Donald Thomas as McGhee’s backup at the point for five games. Thomas had spent his entire Hornet career playing either shooting guard or small forward prior to getting minutes at point for a five-game stretch.
Then, Spenser Schulte, who began the season on the practice squad and not on the active roster, backed up McGhee at the point for two games. With Young back in the lineup, he will now generate the majority of minutes as McGhee’s back-up at the point.
REBOUNDING DIFFICULTIES AGAIN
After finishing last in the Big Sky with a -6.9 rebounding disparity in 2006-07, the problems on the glass are back again this season. The Hornets are currently being outrebounded by 8.1 rebounds per game, including a 43-23 disparity at Northern Colorado. Sacramento State has just one player averaging better than five boards (Randy Adams - 5.3 rpg) and nearly 40 percent of the team’s total rebounds (349) have come on the offensive glass (138).
387 AND COUNTING
Sacramento State has made at least one three-pointer in 387 consecutive games, a streak which dates back 14 years. The last time the Hornets did not make a three-pointer occurred on Nov. 28, 1993, when the team went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc in an 85-57 loss at Montana State.
LEATHAL WEAPON
Junior shooting guard Loren Leath has led the Hornets in scoring in eight of 11 games this year, including five games with 21 points or better. His average of 16.1 points ranks third in the Big Sky and his 2.8 three-pointers are the best mark in the conference.
However, after scoring in double figures in each of his first nine games, Leath has struggled over the last two games. During that two-game span, which includes a season-low two points at Marquette, Leath is averaging just 3.5 points per game on 2-of-19 shooting (.105) from the field.
He is still shooting his three-pointers at a .408 clip (31-76) and his 1.2 steals per game are the 10th best mark in the conference. In addition, Leath, who went to the free throw line just 30 times all of last season, has already eclipsed that mark this year with 42 attempts (30 makes, .714). Leath is the Hornets’ top returning scorer after averaging 12.8 points per game and knocking down a team-best 72 three-pointers last season. The Oakland, Calif., native has scored in double figures 42 times during his career. This year’s average of 16.1 points have accounted for 25 percent of the team’s scoring output this season (65.2 ppg).
BECOMING A FACTOR
Junior swingman Donald Thomas went the first 28 games of his Hornet career without scoring in double figures. However, Thomas, who transferred from Daytona Beach Junior College prior to last season, has scored in double figures four times in the last eight games. In 25 games last season, Thomas averaged just 5.3 minutes, 1.6 points and 0.9 rebounds. This season, he is averaging 18.8 minutes, 7.6 points and 3.1 rebounds. In addition, he is shooting 48.4 percent (31-64) from the field after shooting just .300 (12-40) last season.
GRADUATING SENIORS
Since head coach Jerome Jenkins took over the head coaching duties in 2000-01, the Sacramento State’s men’s basketball program has graduated 11 players. That number will take a large jump with all five of this year’s seniors (Roderick Adams, Jason Davis, Curtis Harrison, Justin Williams and Clark Woods) on pace to graduate in the spring. Former Hornets Chris Lange and James Payne are also on pace to graduate in the spring, which could give the Hornets seven more graduates by this academic year’s end.
STAT SHEET STUFFER
Among Big Sky leaders, senior forward Justin Williams is first in blocks (1.40 bpg), second in steals (1.90 spg) and eighth in field goal percentage (.507). One of the Hornets’ most athletic players, he is also averaging 6.9 points per game with many of those points coming on highlight reel dunks. Against 10th-ranked Marquette, he was arguably the Hornets’ best player, finishing with 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. The four assists set a career high and the nine rebounds matched his career best.
NOT PLAYING LIKE A FRESHMAN
True freshman point guard Vinnie McGhee, Jr., who turned 18 years old on Oct. 8, is already showing signs that he could take over the role of four-year starting point guard for the Hornets. Much in the same way DaShawn Freeman (2002-06) took over the reigns and led the Hornets to four straight Big Sky Tournament appearances.
McGhee, who is one of the Hornets’ hardest workers and already a team leader, has been impressive in his first 11 games in the Green and Gold. The Oakland, Calif., native is averaging 10.6 points, 6.3 assists, 1.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. He has started each of the last 10 games, and among Big Sky leaders, ranks first in assists and assist-to-turnover ratio (+1.57), fourth in minutes (31.6 per game), and sixth in steals.
THIEVERY
Consistently one of the most athletic teams in the Big Sky Conference, Sacramento State has led the conference in steals every year since Jerome Jenkins became head coach of the program in 2000-01 (a span of seven consecutive years). Last season, the Hornets’ 11.03 steals per game were a program record, and ranked as the second best mark in the nation. This year, the Hornets are averaging 9.3 steals, which is the best mark in the Big Sky. The team’s turnover margin of +1.55 is also the best mark in the Big Sky.
NO SUCH THING AS A CLOSE GAME
All but one of Sacramento State’s games this season (win or lose) have been decided by at least 12 points. The only close the game the Hornets played came in a 57-53 setback against Southern Utah.
HORNET NOTABLES
Junior forward Randy Adams is averaging 6.8 rebounds over his last four games, and now ranks 12th in the Big Sky with 5.3 rebounds per game...after missing five games with injuries to both knees, sophomore guard Alonzo Young returned to the lineup at Northern Colorado, and had seven points, two rebounds and an assist in 18 minutes...senior center Curtis Harrison, who broke his hand in practice earlier this year, is eyeing a return to the court some time during the conference season...senior Clark Woods is still shooting .385 (15-39) from the three-point line despite knocking down just 2 of his last 14 attempts from beyond the arc spanning four games.
GAME PREVIEW
