After a miserable 4-25 season last year, the Sacramento State women’s basketball team turned it around this year and three players were awarded by the Big Sky Conference for their great play today.

Junior forward Kylie Kuhns was named second team all-conference, sophomore guard Alle Moreno was named to the honorable mention all-conference team and freshman point guard Fantasia Hilliard was named Outstanding Freshman of the Year.

Kuhns led the Hornets in scoring, field goal percentage and rebounding, and head coach Jamie Craighead said she believes Kuhns could have been named to the first team if the Hornets had a better record.

“Kylie probably deserved first team, but when you finish as the six seed, sometimes you get gypped a little bit,” Craighead said.

Moreno has been good all season, but she has been one of the best players on the team as of late.

In the last 10 games, she has scored double-digit points in nine of the games, averaged 17.9 points per game and hit 37 3-pointers.

Moreno has made 75 total 3-pointers this season and she is only two behind the Sac State single-season record.

Hilliard is the first Hornet ever to be named Outstanding Freshman of the Year after averaging 8.7 points per game and being second in the Big Sky with 4.9 assists per game.

Hilliard said she was really excited when she found out she had won.

“It’s really exciting. I didn’t know about it until they told me, so I was really shocked when they told me,” Hilliard said. “There has been a lot of changes since I’ve been here so I just want to continue on making history and putting more into the program.”

Hilliard is the seventh player in Sac State history to have 100 assists in a single season and her 141 is tied for sixth in school history.

Craighead said Hilliard winning the award could mean a championship down the line for the Hornets.

“Having the freshman of the year is a big deal,” Craighead said. “A couple of the teams that, as you have freshman of the year and they get older, start to win championships with those types of kids, so we are really excited about that.”

With Hilliard running the offense this year and Moreno and Kuhns playing great basketball, the program has improved significantly.

The Hornets finished the regular season at 12-17 (7-9) and have made the Big Sky tournament as the No. 6 seed.

They will face No. 3 Eastern Washington University Thursday at 4 p.m.

Josh Stanley can be reached at [email protected].