Saturday, December 28
BOZEMAN
4 p.m.
Montana State University
vs
Sacramento State
Photo by: Kelly Gorham
Montana State Meets Sacramento State For Big Sky Opener Saturday
12/26/2019 2:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Bobcats face one of the nation's top defensive teams in Worthington Arena when the Hornets visit Bozeman for the teams' conference opener
| Montana State Bobcats (6-5) vs. Sacramento State (7-2) | |
| Date and Time | Saturday, Dec. 28 - 4 p.m. MDT |
| Location | Bozeman, Mont. |
| Site | Worthington Arena (6,772) |
| Television | Pluto TV |
| Radio | KMMS 1450 AM | Bobcat Sports Radio Network |
| Listen Live | msubobcats.com/watch | TuneIn app |
| Stream | Pluto TV (channel 538) | WatchBigSky.com |
| Live Stats | MSUBobcats.com (Statbroadcast) |
| Tickets | MSUBobcats.com/Tickets | Bobcat Ticket Office |
| Montana State | Game Notes | Men's Basketball Home Page |
| Sacramento State | Men's Basketball Home Page |
BOZEMAN, Mont. – Big Sky Conference play begins Saturday at 4 p.m. when Montana State hosts Sacramento State in Worthington Arena. The game marks the first of 20 league contests for both the Bobcats and Hornets during the 2019-20 season.
Montana State will open its Big Sky slate at home for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign. The Bobcats have opened the conference schedule the last two seasons on the road with trips to Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.
"I've learned that we're a pretty resilient group," said Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle of the team after 11 games. "I thought we played a really challenging non-conference schedule in some tough atmospheres. Going to Bakersfield, that's a hard place to play. North Dakota State is an NCAA Tournament team and we had chances to win both of those games. Now we've got to win them."
MSU returns to its home confines for the first time in over three weeks. The Bobcats' last home game resulted in a 77-70 victory over South Dakota State on Dec. 5. Montana State's attendance of 4,877 against SDSU was the highest attended non-conference home game for the program since 1997. On Dec. 30, 1997, MSU beat San Diego 77-61 in front of 5,477 fans during a holiday tournament played in Worthington Arena. The next highest attended non-conference home game was on Nov. 16, 2007, when MSU hosted Boise State in Bozeman in front of 4,866 fans.
The Bobcats have got off to strong starts to begin conference play the last two seasons. MSU went 4-1in its first five league games last year and started 4-0 to open the 2017-18 Big Sky schedule. Both starts were disrupted with losing streaks of three and four games, respectively. MSU's 6-5 overall record under head coach Danny Sprinkle matches the debut season mark of past coach Stu Starner. MSU opened the 1983-84 season under Starner, the then first-year head coach, with the same tally through 11 games. The last first-year coach to begin a season with a better record was Bruce Haroldson, whose 1978-79 squad began the year 7-0 and eventually was 9-2 through 11 contests.
Despite not scoring at as high of a rate as a season ago, the Bobcats have been one of the best shooting teams in Division I basketball. MSU's 47.5% mark from the field and 36.4% clip from 3-point range rank 45th and 64th, respectively, in the nation.
While the Bobcats recorded their third best shooting mark of the season last time out at CSU Bakersfield at 51.1%, the Roadrunners escaped with a 74-72 on their home court over Montana State on Dec. 19. Bakersfield was just the second team to shoot over 50% this season against MSU. The Bobcats are 0-2 in games when opponents hit over half their shots, with the other occurrence a 98-72 defeat to Green Bay on Nov. 30.
"The games we've lost, one of the main reasons we've lost the game is not taking care of the ball," Sprinkle said. "I'm proud of the way the guys have fought. They've defended against some pretty good offensive teams and we're going to continue to keep doing that."
Harald Frey has continued his strong play as a Bobcat during his senior season. Frey has started 107 straight contests which is one of the top 10 active marks in Division I. He also has moved up MSU's all-time scoring chart improving from 13th to fifth in program history. He currently has 1,566 career points and recently passed Jack Gillespie (1966-69) in the program record book.
Sacramento State enters Saturday's game with a 7-2 record, which is the team's best mark after nine games during the Division I era (1991-pres.) and matches the best mark in program history (1948-pres.). The only other team to accomplish the feat was the 1987-88 Div. II Hornet squad. That 1987-88 team would eventually start the year 10-2 and is also the last Sacramento State squad to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The Hornets have done a majority of their work on the defensive end. The Hornets are among the best defenses in the nation, ranking 2nd in the country in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.218), 3rd in scoring defense (52.1) and 4th in field goal percentage defense (.350).
The Bobcats hold a 33-20 edge in all-time meetings between the two schools.
"We don't need to change anything we're doing, we've just got to keep getting better at what we do," Sprinkle said of the upcoming schedule. "We've got to protect the paint, make teams make jump shots and rebound. Our defense has to be on point and on offense we've got to take care of the ball."
Saturday's game will be streamed on the Pluto TV app and on WatchBigSky.com. All Bobcat basketball games are available to listen to as part of the Bobcat Sports Radio Network with both games Thursday airing locally on KMMS 1450 AM. All tickets are available at msubobcats.com/tickets, by calling 406-994-CATS or by visiting the Bobcat Ticket Office.
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