GAME PREVIEW

• Sacramento State (5-12, 1-3) travels to Greeley for a matchup at Northern Colorado (13-5, 5-0) on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT.
• The Bears have won seven straight, while the Hornets have dropped three in a row.
• Sacramento State played its first Big Sky road game on Thursday, which resulted in a 77-53 loss at Northern Arizona.
• The Hornets played without three injured rotational players (and two starters) on Thursday at NAU. That included two back court starters in sophomores Emil Skytta and Alex Kovatchev. The Hornets were also without sophomore forward Bowyn Beatty in that game.
• Sacramento State is 1-6 on the road, and has dropped three straight away from home since its lone road win at Air Force on Nov. 27. Thursday's game at NAU snapped a streak that had seen the Hornets go an entire month without playing a road game.
• Northern Colorado has won seven straight games for the first time since the 2010-11 squad began conference play with a 7-0 record.
• The Bears are 8-1 at home, and have won four straight at Bank of Colorado Arena. However, three of those victories during the winning streak have come by five points or less.
• Sacramento State is 9-24 all-time against Northern Colorado, and has dropped three straight, and nine of the last 11 to the Bears.
• Northern Colorado swept the season series a year ago, but both wins came by five points or less, including a 77-75 win over the Hornets in Greeley.
• The Hornets are 3-13 in Greeley with the only win on Northern Colorado's home floor sine 2012 coming in an 85-71 victory on Jan. 8, 2022.
• The Bears, who are currently receiving votes in the College Insider Mid-Major top 25 poll, were selected third in the Big Sky's preseason coaches poll.
• Northern Colorado ranks among the nation's top 25 teams in field goal percentage (2nd, .515), points per game (24th, 83.2) and assists per game (22nd, 17.4).
• The Bears have two of the Big Sky's top three scorers in Langston Reynolds (2nd at 17.0 ppg) and Isaiah Hawthorne (3rd at 16.8 ppg). One of those two players has led Northern Colorado in scoring in all but four games.
• The Bears had scored better than 80 points in six straight games until Thursday's 72-69 win vs. Portland State. Sacramento State has yet to score more than 80 points against a Div. I opponent - the closest was an 83-77 loss at California on Nov. 24.

MULTIMEDIA OPTIONS

• Every game the remainder of the season (home and away) will stream on ESPN+.
• For the fourth straight season, all Hornet home games, and games played at a Big Sky Conference venue, will stream on ESPN+. The subscription-based service streams 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.

A LOOK AT THE LAST GAME

• Four Northern Arizona players scored in double figures, led by Trenton McLaughlin's 21 points, as the Lumberjacks defeated Sacramento State, 77-53, on Thursday evening.
• For the second consecutive game, Sacramento State got off to an extremely slow start. NAU jumped out to 8-0 and 14-2 leads as the Hornets missed nine of their first 10 shots from the field.
• The Lumberjacks went into halftime with a 45-23 lead, before taking the second half by just a 32-30 margin. The biggest difference in the game was the 3-point line where NAU was 12-for-27 (44%) while Sacramento State was just 5-of-29 (17%).
• The Lumberjacks finished 46% (27-59) from the field while Hornets were 34% (19-56).
• For the Hornets, Jacob Holt posted his fourth double-double in the last five games with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Five of those boards came on the offensive glass, as he converted eight field goals and a pair of free throws.
• Joining Holt in double figures was Julian Vaughns who matched his career high with 18 points, including four assists and three 3-balls. No other Hornet player scored more than six.
• EJ Neal had six points, Chudi Dioramma four points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots, and Michael Wilson posted a career-best seven rebounds to go with two steals.

INJURIES TAKING A TOLL

• Sacramento State played without three key players on Thursday night at Northern Arizona, as injuries continue to pile up.
• Guard Alex Kovatchev, after starting each of the first four games, has missed 13 consecutive games with injury.
• Guard Emil Skytta, who had started 41 consecutive games dating back to last season, has missed the past two games.
• Seven-foot forward Bowyn Beatty, a rotational player who had appeared in each of the first 16 games, missed his first game of the season on Thursday.
• All three players are sophomores and all three have big roles with the team, especially Skytta and Kovatchev who are the Hornets' top two defenders. Kovatchev is always in the right place at the right time offensively and defensively, and Skytta is the team's best penetrating guard with 44 assists.
• All three players were starters a year ago.

INTERNATIONAL ROSTER

• The Hornets' roster is one of the most international in the nation.
• Sacramento State has players representing six different countries - Australia (5), United States (5), Canada (1), England (1), Finland (1) and South Sudan (1).
• In addition, Sacramento State has players from four of the seven continents - North America, Africa, Europe and Australia.
• The Hornets' head coach, Michael Czepil, is from Melbourne, Australia, and took the team on a trip to Sydney, Gold Coast and Melbourne during the summer.

THE CZEPIL ERA

• Sacramento State is under the guidance of interim head Michael Czepil (Zep-pull). David Patrick, who coached the Hornets the previous two seasons, stepped down on May 22 to become the associate head coach at LSU.
• Czepil spent the previous two seasons on Patrick's staff as the associate head coach.
• A native of Melbourne, Australia, Czepil entered the season with 14 years of collegiate, international and professional coaching experience.
• He arrived at Sacramento State after spending four seasons at UC Riverside (2018-22), including the final two as the team's associate head coach.
• Czepil has had a big influence on all areas of the Hornet program the last two seasons, including recruiting, on-floor coaching, player development and scouting.

YOUNG STARTING LINEUP AND ROTATION

• In seven of the last eight games, the team has used a starting lineup that consisted of one freshman and two sophomores. In addition, the team's rotation has consistently included six underclassmen.
• Sacramento State had used the following lineup (featuring just one senior) for six straight games before Skytta missed the last two - freshman Lachlan Brewer, sophomores Bailey Nunn and Emil Skytta, junior Julian Vaughns and senior Jacob Holt.
• When Skytta went down, forward Bowyn Beatty replaced Skytta in the lineup vs. EWU as the Hornets decided to go big. However, Beatty then went down and the Hornets went back to playing small by inserting guard EJ Neal into the starting lineup at NAU.
• Playing young is nothing new to the Hornets. Last season, Sacramento State was one of four Div. I teams in the country to play their freshman over 40 percent of the team's total minutes.
• When Kovatchev went down with his injury, true freshman wing Lachlan Brewer has started all 13 of those games in Kovatchev's place.

GETTING TO THE FREE THROW LINE

• Sacramento State has done a nice job getting to the free throw line during league play.
• In fact, the team's 99 free throw attempts are the top mark in the Big Sky. However, Sacramento State is only shooting those freebies at a 66% clip (65-for-99).
• The Hornets have gone to the line at least 17 times in all four league games, including 32 vs. Idaho and 28 vs. Eastern Washington.
• Leading the way is Jacob Holt's 37 free throw attempts (converting on 26).

SLOW STARTS

• During each of the Hornets' last three losses, Sacramento State has fallen victim to slow starts it could never quite overcome. Making the slow starts even more frustrating is two of them came at home against Idaho and Eastern Washington.
• Against Idaho, the Vandals jumped out to a 22-11 lead.
• Eastern Washington had a 27-10 lead as the Hornets did not score their fourth point until the 11:25 mark of the first half.
• Northern Arizona jumped out to a 25-7 lead as Sacramento State did not score its fourth point until the 12:29 mark of the first half.

HOLT'S HUGE NIGHT, AND BIG SEASON

• In the game against Idaho, senior forward Jacob Holt had one of the best games in Sacramento State's Div. I era. That falls right in line with the huge season he's had thus far.
• He posted 35 points and 10 rebounds vs. the Vandals on 8-14 FG, 2-2 3FG, and 17-21 FT. The 35 points are the fifth best output in the program's Div. I era (1991-pres.), and the second highest output in a loss.
• The free throws made and attempted were both the top marks in the Div. I era, and he accounted for 52 percent of the team's scoring in the game.
• Holt has been one of the best players in the Big Sky, ranking fifth in scoring (16.5 ppg), fourth in rebounding (6.9 rpg) and eighth in field goal percentage (.515).
• He is the only player in the Big Sky to rank among the top five players in both scoring and rebounding, and has led the Hornets in scoring in 12 of 17 games.
• Holt was named Big Sky Player of the Week on Dec. 31, and has posted double-doubles in four of his last five games
• He has scored in double figures 14 times, including six 20-point efforts.
• If the season ended today, his scoring average would be the highest for a Hornet since Bryce Fowler averaged 19.0 ppg during the 2021-22 season.
• Holt also leads the Big Sky in free throws made (82) and attempted (113) - marks that currently rank 48th and 38th in the nation, respectively.
 
FINAL SEASON IN THE NEST

• Sacramento State will embark upon its final year in the Nest. Next season, the team will move into the The Well on campus.
• The project is set to convert a portion of The Well, an on-campus fitness facility, into a venue for both the men's and women's basketball teams. The Well sits next to the football field on the south end of campus. Seating capacity will likely be around 3,000.
• Built in 1955, the Nest is currently one of the oldest (and smallest) facilities among all NCAA Div. I institutions with a seating capacity of only 1,012.
• The Hornets have played in the Nest every year since 1955, except four seasons (1996-00) when they played at downtown Memorial Auditorium. Those four seasons were also the team's first four in the Big Sky Conference.

QUICK NOTABLES

• Point guard Bailey Nunn has started nine straight games after going the first 37 games of his career without garnering a start. During those nine games, he is averaging a team-best 33.1 minutes to go with 8.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
• Both freshman Leo Ricketts and sophomore Kiir Kiir Chol Deng received their first minutes of the season at Northern Arizona. Rickets scored his first collegiate points (2) in nine minutes while Chol Deng had two rebounds in 10 minutes.
• Guard EJ Neal has scored in double figures once in the last seven games after doing so six times in the first 10 games of the season. He was thrust back in the starting lineup for the first time in eight games at NAU, and finished with six points on 2-of-5 shooting from 3PT.
• After not playing three straight games, guard Deonte Williams had a season-high eight points to go along with four rebounds, a block and a steal in nearly 12 minutes vs. Eastern Washington. He shot 2-for-3 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free throw line.
• Guard Lachlan Brewer remains the Hornets' top 3-point shooter based on percentage, as he is shooting 45% from deep on 19-for-42 shooting.
• Guard Julian Vaughns has scored in double figures in three straight games, averaging 14.0 ppg and burying seven 3-pointers over that span.