With a 13-point lead in the second half, it seemed as if the Hornet women’s basketball team was on their way to pulling off the seemingly impossible last week against the University of California, Riverside. The Hornets were a mere 11 minutes, 25 seconds away from snapping a 44-game streak of on-the-court futility.

You see, it would be an understatement to say that it has been a long time since the Hornet women have won a basketball game. It was 718 days ago that the Hornets were last victorious — a Jan. 27, 2001 thumping of Portland State.

Since that triumphant night in Hornet Gym, Sac State has lost 29 games (66 percent) by over 20 points and four by over 60. The team currently stands a mere 15 games away from breaking the NCAA Div. I record for consecutive losses, held by Long Island University.

During last year’s 0-27 campaign, two players quit the team and the Hornets committed a program-record 47 turnovers in a 101-47 loss at Wyoming. The team shot 31 percent from the field on the season, compared to 44 percent by the opposition.

But things have gotten better since last year’s nightmare season.

How could they get any worse for head coach Carolyn Jenkins? Wait, she still needs to watch out for Athletic Director Terry Wanless and his happy trigger finger.

But this year’s team seems to have a different swagger about themselves despite being winless over the first seven games. The Hornets have lost three games by 11 points or less, they don’t grease up their jerseys, and they aren’t settling for moral victories.

“We’re going to break that losing streak really soon,” said freshman guard Sarah Craig, who currently leads the Hornets with 15.4 points per game, after a 60-49 loss to Cal Poly earlier this season.

The squad may have their best chance to snap the streak this Saturday when they face Notre Dame de Namur University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school with a 4-7 record.

The Hornets are coming off their best shooting game of the season (45 percent) against Riverside, and the team seems to be jelling as the season rolls along. The Hornets played their first three games without last year’s leading scorer Sydney Gatson, who has been hampered with a back injury throughout her career. Craig has also missed two games due to religious obligations.

The team’s biggest weakness is rebounding, and the Hornets are hopeful the solution to that problem is 6-foot-2 center Nichole Hardaway, who has been academically ineligible during the fall. As of now the Hornets are struggling in the post, relying heavily on freshman Katelyn Ciampi.

Ciampi is one of three freshman playing significant minutes for head coach Carolyn Jenkins, who returned only four players from last year’s squad. And the inexperienced Hornets seem to be picking up on the college game at a rapid pace.

Unlike last season, the Hornets run the floor. They are no longer shut down in the backcourt by the full-court press. Junior Point guard Dolores Olivarez, who sat out all last season with an ankle injury, provides a stable ball handler at the point guard position. They have an outside shooter in junior college transfer Diane Peterson, and players who can create their own shot in Gatson and Craig.

Jenkins has a core of returning players with great potential. Craig may earn all-conference honors this season; Kristine Knowlton, a sophomore center, could become the school’s all-time shot blocker. Who knows, under the right circumstances, maybe the Hornets can even win a Big Sky game this year.

No longer are games a 40-minute laughing stock as it was last year. No, the 2002-03 women’s basketball team is not good; they’re not even mediocre. But they’re respectable.

And after Saturday’s game (5 p.m. at Hornet Gym), they could be on a one-game winning streak.