Tyler Hall's 34-Point Effort Not Enough as Sac State Holds Off Bobcats

Thursday, March 7

Sacramento, CA

8 p.m.

Montana State University

14-15, 11-8

Sacramento State

14-14, 8-11

Team	1	2	F
Montana State	32	35	67
Sacramento State	32	38	70

Tyler Hall's 34-Point Effort Not Enough as Sac State Holds Off Bobcats

3/8/2019 12:05:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score MSU-SAC Box Score MSU Season Stats

MSU falls into a tie with Weber State, Eastern Washington in league standings

By: Bill Lamberty

SACRAMENTO, California – Chibueze Jacobs scored a career-high 19 points and Sacramento State held the Bobcats scoreless for four-and-a-half minutes late in the game as the Hornets beat Montana State 70-67 in The Nest on Thursday.

The Hornets out-rebounded the Bobcats 22-16 in the second half, converting five offensive rebounds in the second stanza into 11 second-chance points. The Hornets out-rebounded MSU 40-38, and forced 16 Bobcat turnovers. "We knew they would play physical," said Bobcat coach Brian Fish. "The rebounds and turnovers in the second half were important."

The effort by Jacobs and Osi Nwachukwu, who scored 12 points, spurred a 42-7 edge in bench points by the Hornets, and offset a spectacular evening by MSU star Tyler Hall. The Bobcat senior scored 34 points, the sixth 30-point effort of his career, on 10-for-21 shooting. His 8-for-19 three-point night marked the second-most three-pointers in school history.

Hall's 34 points accounted for more than half of MSU's total. Junior guard Harald Frey scored 11 points, the only other Bobcat in double-digits. The Cats shot just 37.1% on the game, to Sac State's 41%. MSU's 16 turnovers matched the second-most of the conference season.

The first half was a tale of two halves. MSU scored the first nine points and led 19-10 with just under 10 minutes to play when Harald Frey hit a short jumper, and 22-13 after a Tyler Hall triple at 7:59. Sacramento State was shooting 27.8% at that point, but the tide was to turn.

Jacobs, averaging 3.4 points per game before the contest, hit two straight jumpers to draw Sac State within 22-17. With 2:26 remaining he hit a baseline jumper to pull the Hornets within 27-25, hit a three-pointer with 36.2 seconds remaining to give the home team its first lead at 30-29, then made two free throws with 2.4 second left to push the margin to 32-29. Only Keljin Blevins 30-footer at the first half horn tied the game. Sac State made seven of its last 12 shots in the first half, while shot between 36% and 38% at each of that stanza's four media time outs, and finished the half at 36.4%.

In spite of Montana State's shooting woes throughout, the Cats never trailed by more than seven points. That happened with 15 seconds left, and even then the Cats kept fighting. Hall hit three free throws and a three-pointer to draw MSU to within the final margin.

The second half featured eight ties, and was a back-and-forth affair. The final tie came after a Harald Frey three-point play put MSU up three with 4:53 left. A jumper by Nwachukwu then a pair of free throws by Jacobs keyed a 10-0 run, and Montana State's shooting abandoned the team at the game's crucial juncture. The Cats missed seven straight shots until Hall's game-closing triple.

The loss drops the Bobcats to 14-15 on the season, 11-8 in Big Sky play. That leaves the Cats tied for third with Weber State and Eastern Washington, also 11-8, and gives Portland State (10-9) the chance to reach the 11-win mark on Saturday when the Vikings host Montana State. That game tips off at 8 pm MT in Vikings Pavilion on the PSU campus. An MSU win clinches a bye for MSU in the first round of the Big Sky Tournament.

In one significant individual achievement on Thursday, Tyler Hall's eight three-point field goals gives him 417 in his career. That moves him into eighth place in NCAA Division I history, and one of the players he passed on that list Thursday was Steph Curry. His 2,447 career points is 85^th-most in DI history.

#GoCatsGo