GAME PREVIEW

• Winners of seven of the last nine games, Sacramento State (10-7, 3-1) will host Northern Arizona (5-13, 1-4) on Saturday at 2 pm in the Nest.
• Saturday is Kids Day. Free team posters will be available, and Sacramento State players will sign autographs after the game.
• The Hornets are coming off Thursday's 72-64 home win over Northern Colorado in which Sacramento State led for nearly 35 minutes of game clock.
• NAU is coming off a gut-wrenching 75-74 road loss at Portland State in which the Viking's Hunter Woods buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
• Sacramento State is 6-0 at home, and is outscoring opponents by 9.9 points per game.
• Dating back to last season, the Hornets have won eight straight at the Nest.
• A win on Saturday would improve the Hornets to 4-1 in the Big Sky for just the third time since joining the league in 1996. The 2005-06 and 2014-15 teams started 4-1.
• A win on Saturday would also give the Hornets 11 wins, which would match the team's total output from a year ago when the program went 11-18.
• The Hornets' lone conference loss came by three points (78-75) on the road against an Eastern Washington team that has yet to lose a conference game. In that loss, the Hornets overcame a 26-point second half deficit to tie the game with 15 seconds left.
• Seven of the last 10 Hornet games have been decided by eight points or less.
• Thursday began a stretch of six of the next eight games played at home after playing in the Nest just five times during the first 16 games of the season.
• NAU has seen two of its last three games decided by one point (75-74 win vs Montana).
• The Lumberjacks are 1-9 on the road this year, which includes a four-point win at Pacific on Dec. 6.
• NAU has dominated the series against Sacramento State, 42-17. That includes three straight wins in the series. Both games a year ago were decided by five points or less.
• Sacramento State is 10-19 when playing the Lumberjacks at home. The Hornets held a one-point lead with under a minute to play last year in the Nest before falling, 62-61.
• The Hornets' last win at home over NAU came on Jan. 9, 2020 - a 64-57 victory.
• The Lumberjacks are allowing 75.3 ppg (9th in the Big Sky) and opponents are shooting 46% from the field (9th in the Big Sky).
• NAU features one of the Big Sky's best players in 5-foot-11 guard Jalen Cone who is third in the league at 17.4 points per game. Hornet fans will remember Cone scoring 36 points in NAU's 70-65 victory against Sacramento State last year in Flagstaff.

MULTIMEDIA OPTIONS

• Every game the rest of the season will stream on ESPN+.
• Because of a scheduling conflict with the San Francisco 49ers playoff game, this Saturday's Hornet game will not be aired on the radio at ESPN 1320 AM.
• 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 hornetsports.com.