Sacramento State women’s basketball coach Bunky Harkleroad paced the sidelines during the closing seconds of the team’s eventual 81-72 defeat at the hands of the Portland State Vikings on Saturday.

At one point in the game, the Hornets had been up by as many as 11 points. Yet as senior guard Maranne Johnson fought for a loose ball with roughly 15 seconds remaining and the game out of reach, they gazed at the scoreboard in disappointment.

Sac State (3-16, 1-7 Big Sky Conference) — which hasn’t won a game on the road all year long — is currently riding a six-game losing streak which is its worst since a six-game skid that stretched from the end of the 2013-14 season to the beginning of the 2014-15 campaign.

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Yet Harkleroad, who is in his fifth year at the helm of the Hornets, remained positive after practice on Monday, saying that his team still has a lot to play for down the stretch of this season.

“We have a shot to win the conference tournament,” Harkleroad said. “It would be silly to stop fighting when we believe in what our team can do, and anything can happen come tournament time.”

But nagging injuries, bad breaks in crunch time and a tough Power 5 schedule against teams such as West Virginia and Kentucky aren’t likely to help a team’s confidence. However, the Hornets remain positive that their recent performances have them on the right track to improvement going into the final month of their regular season.

The injuries have forced Harkleroad to play underclassmen such as sophomore Kennedy Nicholas, freshman guard Dana DeGraffenreid and sophomore guard Tiara Scott.

“It is crucial that the players we will have returning next season (continue to) fight — there has to be no quit in our underclassmen,” Harkleroad said.

Sac State will also look to veterans such as Johnson, who was arguably one of the three most efficient players in Saturday’s loss with 20 points, five rebounds and four assists in 33 minutes of play.

Another player who performed well against Portland State was sophomore guard Hannah Friend. After going 0-5 from 3-point range in an 85-71 loss against Idaho State on Jan. 20, Friend bounced back by shooting 50 percent (6-12) from beyond the arc en route to a team-high 39 points.

“Shooters shoot, and I can’t not keep shooting,” laughed Friend after Monday’s practice.

Friend also said the positivity and focus hasn’t changed much during their losing streak.

“I know we’d love to get a couple of wins, obviously, going toward the end of the season, but I think if we stick together as a unit and continue to fight and not give in then we will be successful no matter what,” Friend said.

Sac State will have its chance to get back in the win column as the team travels to play Eastern Washington on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Reese Court in Cheney, Washington.