Montana State University
Sacramento State
Cats Host Sacramento State, Portland State Approaching Big Sky Midpoint
1/29/2025 2:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Crucial pair of conference clashes await Montana State in home arena this weekend
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Montana State men's basketball welcomes a pair of familiar Big Sky foes to Worthington Arena this weekend, hosting Sacramento State on Thursday and Portland State on Saturday.
MSU tips off against Sacramento State (6-14, 2-5) at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening for the annual No More Stolen Relatives Game.
Tickets are $5 for those who wear red in support of the Montana State University American Indian Council and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Student Association.
The game will stream on ESPN+, with live radio play-by-play from Voice of the Bobcats Keaton Gillogly and analyst Brian Priebe airing on the Bobcat Sports Network.
MSU tips off against Portland State (13-7, 5-2) at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening for Pack the Place in Pink.
Tickets are $5 for those who wear pink in support of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
The game will be televised regionally on SWX, with live streaming on ESPN+ and radio play-by-play airing on the Bobcat Sports Network.
Tickets for both games are available here.
Montana State is coming off a 77-70 loss to Montana last Saturday in Missoula but have won three of their last five games.
Despite sitting seventh in the conference standings, the Bobcats remain the second-highest ranked team in the Big Sky in both the NET rankings (No. 192) and KenPom ratings (No. 191).
The Cats' five conference losses have come by a combined 21 points.
NO MORE STOLEN RELATIVES: Thursday night will be Montana State's annual No More Stolen Relatives game. In partnership with the Montana State American Indian Council (AIC) and the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Peoples Student Assocation (MMIP), the Bobcats seek to raise awareness for a cause that is significant across the state with 12 tribal nations, seven reservations, and 65,000 individuals who identify as Native Americans in Montana.
B WALK WALKS THE TALK: Junior forward Brandon Walker has scored in double-figures in seven straight games going back to January 4, and leads the team averaging 15.1 points on 54.0% shooting from the floor. The junior ranks seventh in the Big Sky in scoring and fourth in field goal percentage. Per KenPom.com's "All-Conference" metrics, Walker has been the most valuable player in the Big Sky this season. Walker enters Thursday's game against Sacramento State with 985 career points, 15 away from hitting 1,000.
ALASKAN ASSASSIN: Redshirt junior guard Patrick McMahon scored a career-high 18 points in Saturday's loss in Missoula, including 15 in the second half alone as the 'Cats mounted a comeback to cut a 17-point deficit to just three with under a minute left. The redshirt junior from Palmer, Alaska, has scored in double-figures in three straight games since being moved out of the starting lineup ahead of a road win at Weber State on January 18. In conference play, McMahon has been a go-to scorer in the second half, averaging 7.5 of his 9.9 points per game in Big Sky contests after halftime.
WELCOME BACK IRON MAN: After missing his first career game last Monday in a win over Eastern Washington to snap a 147-game streak of appearances, graduate guard Tyler Patterson returned to the lineup on Saturday in Missoula. The veteran has started 137 games in a Bobcat uniform, the most in school history, and has hit 249 3-pointers--the fourth-most in MSU history.
IMPORTANT PIECES: When Montana State and Sacramento State met in the Big Sky Tournament semifinal last March, Sam Lecholat recorded one of his best games of the year, finishing with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and two big blocked shots. Jed Miller helped seal the win by going 2-for-2 at the free throw line with 15 seconds left to make it 74-71--the final score by which MSU would book their fourth straight trip to the title game. Coming into Thursday's clash with Sacramento State, Lecholat has started each of the last three games, while Miller has played at least 24 minutes per game over that span.
BEEN AROUND THE BLOCK: Montana State is one of the most experienced teams in the country, boasting five players in the rotation who have each played in at least 121 games (Jabe Mullins, Tyler Patterson, Brian Goracke, Max Agbonkpolo, Sam Lecholat), and nine players who have at least four years in college basketball.
BALL SECURITY: Graduate wing Tyler Patterson owns the third-best turnover rate in the country, with only 4.3% of possessions with him on the court ending in a Patterson turnover. In 459 minutes of game action, Patterson has turned it over just four times this season. Redshirt junior wing Patrick McMahon ranks 14th in NCAA Division I in turnover rate, with only 5.7% of possessions with him on the court ending in a McMahon turnover. In 484 minutes played this season, McMahon has just eight turnovers.
SERIES HISTORY (SACRAMENTO STATE): Montana State and Sacramento State meet on Thursday in their 64th matchup all-time. Montana State leads the all-time series, 42-21, and has gone 26-6 against the Hornets in Bozeman. Sacramento State has won in Bozeman just three times since 2006, including an upset in last year's clash at Worthington Arena, 66-63. The two teams met in the 2024 Big Sky Tournament semifinals, with the fifth-seeded Bobcats defeating the tenth-seeded Hornets, 74-71, to advance to their fourth straight Big Sky Tournament championship game.
SERIES HISTORY (PORTLAND STATE): Montana State and Portland State meet on Saturday in their 70th matchup all-time. Montana State leads the all-time series, 41-28, and has gone 28-7 against the Vikings in Bozeman. MSU has won eight of the last ten against Portland State at Worthington Arena and seven of the last eight overall in the series. The two programs have met at least twice a year since 1998 in a series that dates back to 1958.
MR. 300: With a win over Weber State on January 18, 2025, head coach Matt Logie achieved his 300th career victory in college basketball. Logie is the 19th-winningest coach all-time in men's college basketball history (.774) and ninth among active head coaches. Logie went 194-35 over eight seasons at Whitworth (Division III) and 82-23 over four seasons at Point Loma (Division II). Logie is currently 25-31 at Montana State and led the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament last year.
BY THE NUMBERS:
- Brandon Walker ranks sixth in the country in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (7.7), and ranks second in the country in percentage of possessions used when the junior forward is on the court (36.5%)
- Teams are shooting 78.9% at the free throw line against Montana State--the third-highest mark in the country.
- Opponents are shooting just 29.0% from beyond the arc against the Bobcats this season, the 18th-lowest mark in the nation
- Montana State is 20th in the country in average on-court height (78.6")
- Jabe Mullins is 5th in the country in free throw percentage, going 43 of 46 at the line (93.5%)
GOLDEN AGE OF BOBCAT BASKETBALL: Montana State has played in four straight Big Sky Tournament championship games, gone 49-16 against Big Sky opponents over the last three seasons, and made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history. The Bobcats are the Big Sky Conference's first three-peat champion since Idaho from 1981-83. In 2021-22, Montana State went 27-8, which included a 13-1 record at home and a program-record 16 wins in conference play. In 2022-2023, Montana State went 25-10, collected a 12-1 record at Worthington Arena, and went 15-3 in conference action.
THE MATT LOGIE FILE: Second-year MSU head coach Matt Logie has taken his teams to the NCAA Tournament in 12 of his 13 seasons as a head coach, and is believed to be just the second men's coach in history to lead teams to the Big Dance at the Division I, Division II, and Division III levels (Tobin Anderson). Logie ranks 15th in NCAA men's basketball history in career winning percentage (.776) and is ninth among active head coaches. Logie came to Montana State after four seasons at Point Loma (Division II), where his teams rolled up an 82-23 record with three conference championships, and eight seasons at Whitworth (Division III), where his teams went 194-35.
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