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GAME NOTES: Needing to bounce back from an embarrassing loss last weekend, the Sacramento State Hornets take their act on the road once again as they challenge Big Sky Conference foe Montana State at Worthington Arena in Bozeman tonight.

Last Saturday, the Hornets were hoping to record back-to-back wins for the first time since the week before Christmas, but the squad followed up a 74-67 win against Eastern Washington with an ugly 98-67 setback to Seattle out of conference. The defeat was the second in the last three games for a Sacramento State program that is currently all alone in last place in the Big Sky standings with a record of only 3-9.

As for the Bobcats, they too were in action last Saturday, but in their case they managed to land in the win column with a 79-71 decision versus Portland State. The victory snapped a brief two-game slide by the team, but was just the second win in the last six games overall, and now Montana State is just a game over .500 in the Big Sky at 7-6.

Montana State won the last meeting between the two a month ago by a score of 58-53 on the road, which means the Bobcats are now ahead in the all-time series by a count of 22-12.

Sacramento State defeated Seattle in their first meeting of the season in California, which meant the Redbirds had more than enough reason to take out their frustrations on the Hornets in the most lopsided loss of the campaign for the squad. Justin Eller finished with a team-best 18 points for the visitors to KeyArena, but he shot just 4-of-12 from the floor and had to save face with a 10-of-12 effort at the free-throw line. Duro Bjegovic added 10 points off the bench for a squad that shot only 34.4 percent from the field. Eller, who has started 20 of the team's 26 games this season, is first in the scoring department with his 10.6 ppg, but just a fraction of a point behind him is Sultan Toles-Bey with his 10.5 ppg. Toles-Bey, who is second on the team in assists with 83, is shooting a mere 33.9 percent from the floor, compared to Eller who has knocked down 48 percent of his field goal chances but has a mere 12 assists in more than 650 minutes of playing time.

The Bobcats put all five starters in double figures last Saturday night at the Stott Center, making it slightly easier for the visitors to pull out the victory over Portland State. Getting a mere six points off the bench, Montana State had to lean heavily on Bobby Howard who dropped in 22 points and cleared eight rebounds, followed by Erik Rush with 17 points and nine boards. Branden Johnson and Marquis Navarre both tallied 12 points and Will Bynum had 10, adding four rebounds and four assists as well. Howard, the leading scorer in each of the last three games for the Bobcats, is posting 14.1 ppg as he shoots 52 percent from the floor, but just 56.1 percent at the free-throw line. Rush tacks on 11.3 ppg overall on the season, but in conference play his production has dipped to 9.6 ppg because his accuracy from the field has plummeted to 38 percent. Navarre (11.3 ppg) and Johnson (10.2 ppg) help to push the program upwards of 68 ppg, but that means the rest of the roster is contributing little to nothing on a regular basis.

The Hornets will have a hard time bouncing back from such a disappointing effort against Seattle, and being on the road won't make it any easier.