An injury depleted Sacramento State women’s hoops club couldn’t hold the fort against trespassing teams from Montana this week, dropping both home games, losing 91-53 to Montana State and 82-45 to the University of Montana.

Against Montana (12-6 overall, 3-2 in Big Sky Conference), the Grizzlies jumped out to a six-point lead, connecting on their first three shots.

After the Hornets tied the score at 10, Montana went on a 32-10 run to take a 42-20 halftime lead. The Hornets were unable to make a serious threat in the second half.

Sarah Craig finished with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Diane Peterson scored 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point land.

For Craig, the Hornets’ leading scorer, the contest marked an end to her scoring slump.

“I guess I lost perspective on what playing the game is all about,” Craig said. “I just settled in and enjoyed the game and played with heart.”

Montana outrebounded Sac State 45-38 and shot 9-of-21 from 3-point range.

Hornet center Kristine Knowlton pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds, tying her season high.

“We tried to get something going because no matter what we did defensively they came out and hit threes,” Hornet coach Carolyn Jenkins said. “You have to pick your poison. You can give up either a three or a two. We tried to hunker down and pressure them to get some stops, but we couldn’t.”

Against Montana State (13-4, 4-0 Big Sky), the top-ranking team in the Big Sky Conference, the Hornets never led. After tying the game at 2-2 less than a minute into the contest, Montana State slammed on the accelerator and never looked back, zooming out to a 37-point victory.

Montana State shot a blistering 50.7 percent from the field. The Bobcats’ freshman center Megan Foy scored a career-high 20 points on 4-of-7 shooting and converted on 12-of-13 free throws.

Although playing out of the Hornets’ depleted post position, Kristine Knowlton recorded a career-high in blocks with eight, tied a season-high with 14 rebounds and had three steals.

“I like to block shots,” Knowlton said. “It’s easy if I back up and let them try to shoot.”

The Hornets are currently missing forward Nichole Hardaway, who is out indefinitely for personal reasons, and forward Katelyn Ciampi, who has a stress fracture in the foot.

The Bobcats broke a program record with 31 assists.

“Montana State is a great offensive team,” Jenkins said. “Anytime you leave them open, they’re going to hit shots. We were trying to attack them inside. We created some great opportunities but we just couldn’t finish. From an offensive standpoint we really weren’t ourselves.

“From a defensive standpoint we got caught out of position too much and they hit the open shots.”

The Hornets will go on the road to play Northern Arizona University on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.