MORAGA — During the last game of a two game road trip, Sacramento State women’s basketball watched as the wheels fell off against St. Mary’s.

After rallying to comeback from a 10-point deficit, the Hornets were dominated in the second half by the Gaels Sunday at McKeon Pavilion, losing 70-50.

It is the third straight loss for the Hornets after winning their home opener and left them winless on the road so far this year.

The Hornets (1-4) opened the game by staking St. Mary’s (4-3) to a 10-0 lead, scoring their first points off of a jumper from senior guard Tyeisha Brown nearly seven minutes into the game. The Hornets managed to come all the way back to the game, though on the strength of three Kim Sheehy 3-pointers and Brown’s work cutting to the basket.

Sheehy ended the game with 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc despite a sore shoulder. Brown led the Hornets with a season-high 16 points, while pulling down five rebounds and contributing five assists.

“I’d definitely take the win any day over the points,” Brown said.

Despite being as close as one point with a little more than 11 minutes to play, the Hornets couldn’t keep up inside as the Gaels closed with an 30-9 run.

Powered by forward Triola Jackson’s 19 points and nine rebounds, St. Mary’s outrebounded and outran the Hornets in the second half.

“I feel like we ran out of gas. We ran the game and then just deflated in the second half,” Brown said.

The disparity between the two teams was most apparent at the free throw line, as the Hornets shot only five free throws, including just two in the second half, to the Gaels 17, leading to a 13-3 advantage in free points for St. Mary’s.

“For us, I think that we just hit a wall with regards to fatigue,” coach Dan Muscatell said. He added that fatigue contributed greatly to defensive errors which lead to some easy opportunities for the Gaels.

The Hornets dropped their game Friday night at Cal Poly (4-1) 73-65.

At this point in the season, the Hornets have mixed returns. Sac State have been competitive, but in four of their five games, they have folded down the stretch, allowing teams to outscore them 147-112 in the second half in those games. There is nearly no inside presence for the squad, as the Hornets have been out-rebounded by an average of four rebounds per game and are averaging only 1.6 blocks per game.

Scoring is up over last year, as the team is scoring 54.0 points per game versus only 50.0 all of last year, but Sac State has only shot 34 percent from the field and only 20 percent from long range.

And while the team is keeping opponents to only 63.6 points per game this year, as opposed to last year’s 68 points per game, they are allowing teams to shoot 42 percent inside the arc and 33 percent outside of it.

The Hornets return home tonight to play Ohio at 7:05 p.m.The Bobcats average 78 points and giving up 94 and heaving 40 3-pointers per game.

Following the contest with Ohio,Sac State has a 10-day break before playing Nevada at the Hornets Nest Dec. 18 at 2:05 p.m.

The rest is greatly needed.

“It’s tough because a lot of people are playing a lot of minutes, and you get tired sometimes, with all the practices and traveling,” Brown said.

“Sometimes when you are hurting, you have to be prepared mentally, you just have to push through it.”