Full set of game notes (26 pages) - pdf

GAME PREVIEW

• Fresh off its first loss of the season on Thursday night at UC Santa Barbara, Sacramento State (3-1) will play its second road game in three days when the team travels to Northridge for a matchup with CSUN (1-4) on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.
• The Hornets' 75-58 loss on Thursday at Santa Barbara marked their first road game of the season, and Saturday's game will be the second leg of a season-high tying three-game road trip. Sacramento State will also travel to Portland on Dec. 8.
• Saturday's game will be the fourth straight against a Big West Conference foe, which includes a 58-55 neutral court win against UC Davis at the downtown Golden 1 Center, and an 87-82 overtime victory against Cal State Fullerton at the Nest.
• UC Davis is the reigning Big West regular season champion and Cal State Fullerton is the league's reigning tournament champion.
• The Hornets would have played five straight against Big West opponents, but their Nov. 16 game vs. Cal Poly was postponed due to poor air quality related the Camp Fire.
• The Hornets currently rank among the nation's top 20 teams (there are 353 Div. I teams) in steals per game (12th, 9.8), 3-point field goal percentage defense (13th, .257) and turnovers forced per game (16th, 18.3)
• CSUN, which used to be called Cal State Northridge, brings a 1-4 record into Saturday's game and will be playing their fourth home game of the season. The Matadors most recently lost on the road at Washington State, 103-94, on Nov. 27.
• The Matadors' lone win came at home (80-77) over Tennessee State on Nov. 20.
• Sacramento State is 2-0 in games decided by six points or less after going 2-10 in that same scenario a year ago.
• In a series which dates back to 1960, Sacramento State is 8-29 against CSUN. That includes a 1-15 mark when playing in Northridge. The Hornets have dropped 13 straight games at Northridge with the only win on the Matadors' home floor coming in a 58-56 outcome on Nov. 25, 1986.
• The two teams played a year ago inside the Nest (Dec. 19, 2017) with the Hornets pulling out a 66-61 victory. In that game, Sacramento State used a 9-2 run over the final 3:49 of the contest.
• The Hornets are coming off an injury plagued 2017-18 season in which the team finished 7-25 overall and 4-14 in the Big Sky Conference. The Hornets had won at least 13 games five consecutive seasons until the seven-win output a year ago.
• The Hornets welcome back eight players and a redshirt from a year ago, including three starters. That includes six of the top eight scorers from last season.
• Led by first-year head coach Mark Gottfried, the Matadors return just five players and one starter from last season's team which finished 6-24 overall and 3-13 in the Big West.

MULTIMEDIA OPTIONS

• Saturday's game will be video streamed live on Big West TV.
• All Sacramento State home games inside the Nest, and road games played against a Big Sky Conference team, will be video streamed for free on Pluto TV and WatchBigSky.com. The Pluto broadcasts can be watched online at Pluto.TV or by downloading the app for your mobile device. Home games can be found on Pluto.TV channel 233.
• Every game this year will be broadcast live on ESPN 1320 AM with 22nd-year play-by-play man Steve McElroy calling all the action.
• Links for all multimedia options, including live stats for every game, can be found next to each game on the men's basketball schedule at www.hornetsports.com.