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M: vs Montana State

SDHornet

SDHornet

Moderator
Staff member
M: vs Montana State

The Hornets (5-3) host the Montana’s this week to tip off BSC play. The Hornets will have to shake off some rust as they were off for finals. First up is MSU (2-6, 0-1 BSC) who is coming off of a road loss at NAU. It was their first game in a long layoff so they will be in better game shape heading into this one. Someone thought it would be a great idea to have a Katz bobble head night (don’t even get me starts on the absurdity associated with this ridiculous idea) so this should definitely get the fans into The Nest.

MSU has had a tough season so far and only has 1 D-1 win but they have several players who look like they contribute on the offensive end. These look to be evenly matched teams but the Hornets have a slight edge on the team statistics. I have this game pegged as a must win. The Hornets need to take care of business on their home court against a struggling MSU team and need to get off on the right start in BSC play. Katz has yet to win a BSC game in the first 8 tries in the past two seasons so hopefully the Hornets can break that terrible trend.

Team Stats Comparison: http://hornethome.com/sacramento-state-basketball/compare_stats/montana-state
  • • Points/Game: Sac: 75.8, MSU: 73.8
    • Points Allowed/Game: Sac: 71.9, MSU: 76.8
    • Rebounds/Game: Sac: 37.2, MSU: 33.9
    • Assists/Game: Sac: 14.0, MSU: 11.5
    • FG%: Sac: 42.6, MSU: 31.7
    • 3-PT%: Sac: 37.2, MSU: 40.0
    • FT%: Sac: 71.7, MSU: 67.5
Individual Stats: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/147/montana-state-bobcats

MSU’s top scorers are senior guard (#23) Xavier Blount (13.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.2 spg) and junior guard (#5) Antonio Biglow (12.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 3.5 apg, 2.0 spg). The Bobcats have 3 others that average 8 or more ppg. I’m not sure what the strategy will be defending MSU but on paper they look pretty evenly balanced across their lineup. If the Hornets play a complete game I think it will be a win.

Hornetsports Preview: http://www.hornetsports.com/sports/mbball/release.asp?release_id=10855

Go Hornets!!!
 
12/18 Montana St @ Sacramento St Game Notes

Tomorrow night the Hornets open up the Big Sky conference play with high expectations for the first time under head coach Brian Katz. It is very important that the Hornets get off to a quick start and defend home court early in conference play because there is a huge 4 game road trip looming from 1/10 through 1/19 against: Portland St/Eastern Washington and Idaho St/Weber St. After that the Hornets have a huge homestand and will play 5 out of 6 at home.

Although this weeks Big Sky schedule is not the usual Thursday/Saturday it is a two game road trip for both Montana and Montana St. Montana will play Northern Arizona Wednesday and Sacramento St Friday, with Montana St having played Northern Arizona already Monday night. This year the Hornets will not be the lone wolf of the Big Sky and their travel partner on the year is Northern Arizona.

Montana St Scouting Report:
Most of the Montana St roster is a collection of JC transfers that had a lot of success and were highly touted coming into the Montana St program, but they have had a hard time meshing them together to create a great team. They are a fairly athletic team and are very streaky in shooting the 3 ball. On offense they are balanced and have six guys averaging 7 points or more.

Xavier Blount: 13.5ppg
Antonio Bigolow: 12.9ppg
Jamie Stewart: 9.9ppg
Flavien Davis: 9.4ppg

Strengths:
The Bobcats are a very good second half team, in fact, they have only been outscored by their opponent in the second half only one time this year and that was earlier this year to Air Force . They showed this Monday night as they were down 18 at the half and were able to cut the lead to as little as 5 during the second half. Montana St is also a fairly decent team at taking care of the basketball and forcing turnovers as well. Montana St does not have many big men so they do a good job pushing the basketball, especially Antonio Bigolow, they play at a fast tempo having averaged around 74 possessions this season.

Weaknesses:
Veteto should have a big game because Montana St is very soft inside and should have no answer for him all night long. On Monday night against Northern Arizona, who is also a soft team on the inside, Montana St got beat up all night including letting Max Jacobsen get off for 22 points and 9 rebounds and got outrebounded 35-25. Montana St. is letting opponents shoot 59.1% on 2 point shots as well, which was once again seen Monday night when the Lumberjacks shot 64% from 2pt. Montana St. is currently rated as the worst defensive team in the Big Sky on an PPP adjusted basis.

This should be a very up tempo game as both teams are averaging around 70 and 74 possessions per game and like to push the ball and play bad defense.

Keys To Game:
1) Pound the Ball: The Hornets have a big advantage with Veteto on the inside lets see if Veteto can stay out of foul trouble and they can take advantage of it. This also applies to offensive and defensive rebounding where the Hornets should also take advantage.
2) Shake of the Rust: Hornets have been off for 10 days and this can lead to lethargic offense, so it is a big deal to winning this game.
3) Stopping Bigolow: When Bigolow pushes the ball up the court and penetrates the lane the Bobcats tend to play better, when he doesn’t their offense tends to come to a standstill.
4) Play 40 minutes: If Sacramento St is up at halftime Montana St will make a push as I stated earlier, Sacramento St has blown leads at halftime this year and in the past, but they have also come back to win in the second half multiple times this year already.

This is a big game to build momentum for what could be a huge Friday night game, and to start off the season on a high note. This is going to be a hungry Bobcat team as they won't want to start off the conference season 0-2.

Final Note: Christian Moon is rumored to be making his season debut Wednesday night after being ruled academically ineligible for the fall semester, he averaged 10.4 ppg last year and I doubt whether or not he plays has that big of an impact on the game, but who knows he is another solid contributor.
 
I just tuned in. 28-21 Hornet lead at the half...now that I think about it me logging in probably just jinxed this one. :x

A quick look at the stats shows McKinney is going off tonight. Garrity only has 3 shots and Dickson has yet to score a point. :shock: I hope those guys get going in the 2nd half.

Dickson drains two 3's in the first 3 minutes of the 2nd half. Hornets up 39-27 with 16:39 left. Veteto has been unstoppable inside so far.

43-33 Hornet lead with 11:09 left. The Hornets have take some bad shots but the Bobcats have been absolutely terrible from the floor. Veteto has been getting it done inside and head to the stripe after the media TO.

46-36 Hornets lead with 7:34 left. Hornets are getting sloppy but MSU can't take advantage of it.

Demps...oh Demps... :ohno:
Dickson has been terrible aside from his two 3 pointers. Another ugly game is keeping MSU in this one.

This is painful to watch. This team has no killer instinct whatsoever. The Hornets are content to let MSU hang around.

55-49 Hornet lead with 2:42 left. MSU has hit a couple from beyond the arc to keep it close but the Hornets have woken up a bit. Hornets need to sink their FT's.

About a minute to go and Garrity misses the front end of a 1 and 1 and then the Hornets foul MSU on a 3. This kind of stuff drives me nuts. MSU makes 2 of 3 and gets to offensive rebound and drains a 3. The Hornets make nothing easy. 57-54 Hornet lead with 52 seconds left.

Looks like the Hornets got it. McKinney sinks 2 FT's and MSU can't get a bucket on the other end. Garrity drains 1 more FT's to put the Hornets up 60-54 with 21 seconds left. McKinney sinks 2 FT's and MSU his a desperate 3 with 1 second left.

FINAL: 62-57 Hornets win. Very sloppy at times but MSU wasn't good enough to take advantage of it. The Hornets needs to clean it up if they want to knock off UM in 2 days.
 
Hornetsports Recap: http://www.hornetsports.com/sports/mbball/release.asp?release_id=10857

Box Score: http://www.hornetsports.com/assets/sports/mbball/SACMSU1.HTM

SSS Recap: http://sacstatesports.com/2012/12/1...-big-sky-opener-for-first-time-since-2005-06/

HornetHome Recap: http://hornethome.com/sacramento-st...o-state-picks-up-win-over-montana-state-62-57

Great games from McKinney (21 pts) and Veteto (19 pts). Katz has to do a better job of finding a way to get Garrity shots, having our best shooter only put up 3 shots is disconcerting. It is good to see Katz and this program finally win a BSC game in the first 8 tries of a season. Hopefully they were able to shake off the rust and will play better against UM.
 
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