GAME PREVIEW
• Sacramento State (4-10) will play its second and final game of the inaugural Big Sky-Summit Challenge on Saturday evening. The Hornets will travel to St. Paul, Minn., to take on St. Thomas (11-5) at 5 p.m. PT.
• The event, which began on Wednesday and concludes Saturday, features each program in the Big Sky playing one home game and one road game against teams from the Summit League.
• The Hornets opened the Big Sky-Summit Challenge on Wednesday with a 67-64 home win over Kansas City while the Tommies opened the tourney with a 75-67 win at Idaho.
• The Big Sky went 5-4 against the Summit on Wednesday with victories by the Hornets, Weber State, Northern Colorado, Montana and Eastern Washington. Five of the nine games between the leagues were decided by single digits or went into overtime.
• The win over Kansas City was the second against a Div. I team for the Hornets, and helped ease the pain of a tough luck loss at Idaho last week. The Vandals' Quinn Denker banked in an off-balance 25-footer at the buzzer to beat the Hornets, 61-58. The play wound up at No. 1 on ESPN SportsCenter's Top Plays that evening.
• The Big Sky and Summit are the only two conferences in the nation not playing conference games this week.
• Nine of the Hornets' 14 games have come away from home (1-6 road, 0-2 neutral). The Hornets have dropped three straight roadies since winning at rival UC Davis on Nov. 26.
• St. Thomas has been very good this season with an 11-5 overall record, including 6-0 at home. The Tommies will enter Saturday night's game with a five-game winning streak.
• St. Thomas made the jump from a Div. III program to Div. I in 2020. As an athletics department, the Tommies were one of the top Div. III programs for decades, and dominated in the MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).
• The Tommies are 3-0 against the Big Sky this year with wins over Portland State, Idaho State and Idaho. All three of those victories came by eight points or less.
• Sacramento State and St. Thomas have never played each other.
• The Tommies were selected fourth in the Summit League preseason poll.
• Sacramento State is currently wearing black bands on its jerseys to honor the loss of program legend Robert "Money" Martin (1985-89), who passed away in November.
• The Hornets are in the second season of the
David Patrick era. Last year's squad finished 14-18 overall and 7-11 in the Big Sky Conference. The 14 wins were the most by a first-year head coach during the Hornets' Div. I era (1991-pres.), and third most in program history.
• Despite fielding a roster that consists of just four returners and 11 newcomers, Sacramento State was selected to finish fourth in this year's Big Sky preseason coaches poll.
MULTIMEDIA OPTIONS
• Saturday's game will be streamed on the Summit League Network, which is a subscription based service.
• This marks the third straight season all Hornet home games, and games played at a Big Sky Conference venue, will stream on ESPN+. The subscription-based service will stream on watchespn.com and the ESPN App.
• 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.
Full set of game notes can be accessed above.
