Hornets kick off season with two dominant wins

The Sacramento State men's basketball team is not only off to a good start at 2-0, the Hornets are crushing teams.

If the Hornets beat Utah tonight, they would be 3-0 for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.

Sac State opened the season with a 96-62 victory over visiting UC Merced last Friday and followed that with an 85-67 win over Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday at the Nest.

Against Bakersfield, four Hornets scored in double figures, led by sophomores Mikh McKinney (23 points) and Dylan Garrity (21). Garrity, who was seventh in the nation in assists per game last season, has 16 assists with just four turnovers.

"This game was an indication of what we can do, and beating (Cal State Bakersfield) the way we did was real good for this point of the year," Hornets coach Brian Katz said. "We only had 10 turnovers and only 14 fouls, which is huge, because they can turn you over with their pressure."

The Roadrunners beat the Hornets by three points last season in Bakersfield and by two points in overtime in Sacramento in 2010. But the Hornets, who led Wednesday by as many as 20 points, snapped a six-game losing streak to the Roadrunners, and it was the first win over them since the 1988-89 season.

Senior John Dickson had 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks, and junior Jackson Carbajal had 10 points, four rebounds and two steals.

Hornets sign Stuteville – Katz announced Wednesday that Eric Stuteville, a 6-foot-10, 220-pound center at Casa Roble, signed a letter of intent to play for the Hornets.

Stuteville averaged 17 points, seven rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots per game as a junior for the Rams.

"It's hard on our level to sign big men like Eric," Katz said. "He's just now coming into his own on the basketball floor and has a tremendous upside."

Katz graduated from Casa Roble in 1975.

Fipps leads Aggies – Sydnee Fipps, a sophomore forward for the UC Davis women's team, scored a career-high 19 points in the season-opening 83-68 loss to Pepperdine last Friday and topped that with 26 points Wednesday night in a 72-65 loss at USF.

"She's been tremendous," coach Jennifer Gross said. "She's really stepped up and taken it upon herself to do what this team needs right now, which is, while we're still young and learning, to have a really aggressive mentality.

"She's getting it done, but we do have a lot of weapons out on the floor, and as we get more experienced, more and more players will step up and feel confident in their roles as well."

Order Reprint