Members of the Sacramento State women’s basketball team have many memories from their time as a Hornet. They won their first conference tournament game in school history last season and this year they upset a Pac-12 school while playing at Oregon State. But none of the players have beat Causeway rival UC Davis…until now.

With eight seconds left in overtime and the Hornets trailing by a point, junior guard Alle Moreno hit a layup with one second left to give her team a 66-65 win at home against the Aggies.

“It feels really good to know my team has confidence in me.” Moreno said. “I didn’t take my first shot and there were three seconds left, so there wasn’t much I could do but drive to the basket.”

The win not only gives the Hornets their sixth of the season, but also keeps the school in the fight to retain the Causeway Cup.

“Coming in, our coach talked to us about how we’ve never beaten Davis (in four years) so it was something we wanted to do,” said senior forward Kylie Kuhns. “With the men’s basketball and football teams losing (earlier this season), we knew we had to win.”

Davis started the game with an early 11-4 lead in the first six minutes after Aggie guard Aniya Baker scored on a layup, but Sac State would tie the game as they went on a 14-4 run.While Sac State’s starting five have contributed the majority of the offense during the last two games, the Hornets bench contributed 14 first-half points led by Shanti Smith to give the team a 34-28 lead at halftime. 

Kuhns was also just one rebound shy of her sixth double-double of the season in the first 20 minutes with 10 points and nine rebounds. She finished the game with 20 points and 15 rebounds. 

“Kylie (Kuhns) just gets the game,” said Hornets head coach Jamie Craighead. “She’s really intelligent and if you tell her something once, she is going to get it for her entire career.”

In the second half, the Aggies came out shooting, making their first six shots to regain the lead. Sophomore guard Sydnee Fipps, who averages 18.6 points per game, hit a three-pointer with 16:31 left to extend the Davis lead, 30-26. 

The Hornets would finish the half on a 7-2 run, highlighted by Kuhns’ putback that was good after she was fouled. She would hit the free throw to send the game into overtime. 

“If I can be under the radar that is fine with me,” Kuhns said. “I work hard and do the dirty work. It’s something I pride myself in.”

During overtime, Sac State held the lead until Davis’ senior guard Courtney French hit a three-pointer from the wing with eight seconds left, putting the Aggies up by one. 

“My first thought was ‘Oh crap,’ but when I saw we had eight seconds left, I wasn’t worried about the time,” Kuhns said. “Eight seconds is nothing, we practice a fast break drill with an eight second shot clock, so we are used to fast paces.”

Moreno struggled all game with only six points until she drove to the basket and scored with 1.2 seconds left on the clock.

“She was a second option off of that play and I thought she was going to take the three, but she went inside,” Craighead said. “She makes big shots.”

The Hornets will return to the court for Big Sky Conference play Jan. 5 for a quick one-game road trip to Southern Utah before coming back Jan 10 for four straight home games.

Tipoff against the Thunderbirds will be at 6 p.m.

Follow Ryan on Twitter @rskuhn and for live game updates follow State Hornet Sports @sthornetsports