The atmosphere was energetic Saturday as the Sacramento State women’s basketball team took on the Bears of Northern Colorado.

It was winner-take-all as the winner headed to the Big Sky Conference Tournament and the loser would begin its offseason conditioning earlier than it would have liked.

The game was well-contested until halfway through the second half as Sac State rolled to the 74-60 victory.

The Hornets’ only senior Atty Boyer was honored before the game with a ceremony on Senior Day.

“I was not expecting to cry and then the tears started coming. I was a little emotional for a second,” Boyer said.

Senior Student Assistant Coach Jourdan Willard was also honored before the game. Willard’s basketball career at Sac State was cut short with a hip injury.

The game was scrappy early on. There was a lot of contact as the refs let the teams feel each other out.

Guard Ashley Garcia got Sac State rolling early with a layup. Then Erika Edwards took the game over.

The forward first connected on a long circus-like shot as time expired on the shot clock. Later Edwards missed on long 3-pointer but worked her way to the basket for the rebound and score.

Northern Colorado started using a full-court defense in which jump-started a 9-4 run for the Bears.

Northern Colorado tried to take the momentum away from the Hornets but it could not score at the end of the half and Edwards added a 3-pointer to give Sac State a 24-22 halftime lead.

The biggest surprise of the first half was Sac State’s Charday Hunt only had two rebounds and no points.

“The first half was just pretty slow for me,” Hunt said. Hunt’s game would speed up in the second half.

The Hornets’ bench helped lead Sac State on a 20-12 run. Guard Tika Koshiyama-Diaz came off the bench and quickly scored eight points. Jasmine Cannady added another 3-pointer as well.

Hunt finally scored with 15:09 remaining in the game. This was not the last of Hunt. She hit a couple of monumental 3-pointers, which kept the Hornets in the lead for good.

Sac State pushed its lead to 20 before Northern Colorado tried to make one final push to save its season. The Hornets proved to be too much for the Bears.

Sac State shot 17 of 20 (85%) from the field in the second half and 7 of 9 (77.8%) from behind the 3-point line in the second half. The bench totaled 27 points for the game.

Head Coach Dan Muscatell had this to say about his squad’s second half dominating performance: “Wow, we just really stepped up and took shots we passed on in the first half. In the second half, not only did we step up to shoot them, but we stepped up to make them.”

Hunt ended up with 16 points (6 of 9) and eight rebounds.

“At halftime I was like I need to be more aggressive,” Hunt said.

“I just really had to step up. Take good shots, try to get open, just do everything I can,” Hunt said.

Edwards yet again had a double double (16 points, 10 rebounds) in only 27 minutes of play as she fouled out with 5:11 left to go in the game.

Forward Emily Christensen contributed 13 points and five rebounds.

With the victory Sac State (7-9) is headed to the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

The Hornets will play Idaho State (7-9) and is slated to be the fifth seed in the Tournament.

“Idaho State, every time we have played them we have only lost by a few points. We will be so pumped up we will take it to (them),” Hunt said.

Muscatell hopes his team can keep the momentum going.

“We talked about this game being our Big Sky Tournament. This was the beginning and from this point forward it is survive and advance.”

Sac State will travel to Missoula, Mont., to take on the Bengals on Thursday. Tip-off is yet to be determined.

Andrew Hazard can be reached at [email protected]