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After a short-lived 2-game winning streak to open up the month of February, the Sacramento State women’s basketball team has now lost four games straight. The latest came today, as the Hornets were beaten 86-80 in an overtime loss to the Montana State Bobcats at the Hornet’s Nest.

Obviously, it’s a great disappointment for us, head coach Dan Muscatell said after the loss. Muscatell’s team has three Big Sky games left to determine whether or not the team will make it to the conference tourney, which begins March 9.

The Hornets (8-15, 3-8) shot a miserable 30 percent (12-40) from the field in the first half with many of the misses coming from directly underneath the basket. The Hornet defense held tight, however, and held Montana State (3-19, 2-8) to 29 points on 11-25 shooting. Montana State’s Whitney Connolly led all scorers after 20 minutes with 9 points. Junior guard Kim Sheehy was the only player to play all 20 minutes in the first half and led the Hornets in first half scoring with eight points while dropping three dimes and coming away with three steals. Hornet guard Cindy Alldrin’s foul trouble started 6 minutes into the game. Alldrin would finish the half with 3 fouls in 11 minutes of play.

Sac State opened the second half with a 16-6 run that put the Hornets up by 12 with 15 minutes left in the game. Montana State wouldn’t let up and mounted their own 16-4 run led by Connolly. Connolly’s eight points in three and half minutes tied the game at 51 with 11 minutes left.

We played very well on the defensive end in the first 20 minutes and then to open the second half, then we got that (12-point) lead and we just didn’t get after it like we had to get the lead out of them, Muscatell said.

The lead would change four more times until Ali Mollet, in for guard Stephanie Cherry who had fouled out with less than two minutes to play, hit a jumper with 44 seconds on the clock to put the Hornets up by three. Montana State would answer with a 3-point dagger by Connolly to tie the game and push it to overtime.

In the extra five minutes of play the Hornets shooting woes from the first half continued as Sac State dropped only 1-9 from the field and 0-5 from behind the arc. Connolly scored a career-high 28 points against the Hornets. Hornet forward Ashley Cadotte led all Hornets in scoring with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Lindsey Heard was terrible from three-point land shooting 1-10, but was a beast under the boards finishing with a game-high 15 rebounds.

We just didn’t make enough shots that’s all, Cadotte said. We got more shots, we had more opportunities and we just weren’t able to convert.

We just got to come out and get the next one. That’s our focus now, Sheehy said after the loss. This one hurts, it hurts bad in my heart, but we got to let it go and look at the next one. We just got to improve this whole week and hopefully get that win.

Armando Botello II can be reached at [email protected]