In arguably its biggest win of the season, Sacramento State took an eight-point lead (86-78) with 1:19 remaining and hung on late for the victory. The Hornets have now won six in a row at home this season and seven in a row at home against Big Sky competition dating back to last year. Sacramento State improved to 7-13 overall and 3-4 in the Big Sky while Northern Arizona dropped to 9-11 and 2-5 in the conference. Sacramento State now moves into fifth place in the Big Sky standings at the midway point of the conference season. The top six teams in the eight-member league advance to the Big Sky Tournament.

The Hornets'' six-game home winning streak is the longest since joining the Div. I ranks prior to the 1991-92 season. The last time the Hornets won at least six home games in a row was an eight-game streak during parts of both the 1987-88 and 1988-89 seasons.

Sacramento State, which is 7-2 at the Hornets Nest this season, continue to win the close games at home as the team has defeated all three of its Big Sky opponents by six points or less. Sacramento State shot 46.9 percent (30-64) from the field and buried a season-high 14 three-pointers (14-33, 42.4 percent). Pugh knocked down six three-pointers in the game (in 14 attempts) and now has 14 three-pointers in his last two games after entering the week with 12 all season.

The game was close throughout as no team had a double-digit lead during the entire contest. Northern Arizona took its largest lead of the game at six points (8-2) just four-and-a-half minutes into the contest. The Hornets, who led for the final 9:53 of the contest, held their largest lead at nine points (77-68) with 6:38 remaining.

Harris continues to make a strong bid for Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year as the junior shot 10-of-20 from the field while also tallying six assists, six rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots. He is now averaging a team-best 17.2 points per game and 21.4 points per game against conference competition. Freeman’s previous career high was 18 points as the junior from Oakland, Calif., shot 8-of-13 from the field, 3-of-5 from beyond the three-point line and 8-of-11 from the charity stripe. Despite playing with a hamstring injury, Freeman also had seven assists, five rebounds and just one turnover in 30 minutes.

Including his 40-point effort against William Jessup on Tuesday, Pugh’s two-game average this week is 30.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.0 steals per contest. Pugh, who struggled with his outside shot during the first half of the season, shot 56.4 percent (22-39) from the floor and a staggering 51.9 percent (14-27) from the three-point stripe during the week.

As a team, Sacramento State has now shot at least 42.0 percent from the field in four of the last five games after doing so just 11 times during the first 15 games of the season. The Hornets shot 55.6 percent in the second half of tonight’s game on the way to a 50-point second half (matching their largest half of the season). The Hornets posted season highs in points (92), three-pointers (14) and three-pointers attempted (33). The team’s 23 assists were one shy of a season high.

After Kyle Landry knocked down two free throws to give Northern Arizona a one-point lead (65-64) with 10:15 remaining in the game, Sacramento State went on a 7-0 run, capped by a three-pointer from Pugh with 8:21 to play. Sacramento State never led by anything less than two points the rest of the night as Freeman buried two free throws with five seconds to play to ice the game.

Joining Harris, Freeman and Pugh in double figures for the Hornets was sophomore forward Alex Bausley who had 10 points and a team-high tying six rebounds.

Northern Arizona had five players in double figures, including double-doubles from Kyle Landry (23 points, 11 rebounds) and Ruben Boykin Jr. (14 points, 12 rebounds). Landry went 8-of-8 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line.

Sacramento State continues its four-game homestand next week with games against Big Sky rivals Eastern Washington (Thursday, Feb. 3, 7:05 p.m.) and Portland State (Saturday, Feb. 5, 7:05 p.m.).