Swarm Report Feb. 25: Both basketball programs suffer losses to Weber State

Baseball cancels one series and schedules another

Michael Eskridge

Sac State women’s basketball team blows 16-point lead to Weber State 

The Sacramento State women’s basketball team lost a big lead in the second half and could not recover, losing 79-73 and handing a winless Weber State team their first victory of the season Thursday.

The Hornets (2-18, 2-15 Big Sky) started fast and strong, forcing eight Wildcat turnovers getting to the free-throw line and scoring 43 points in the first half. Sophomore guard Jordan Olivares had a career-high 22 points on 7-9 shooting from the field and was perfect from three-point range (3-3). Redshirt sophomore guard Sarah Abney followed behind with 16 points of her own, including pouring in four 3-pointers and a clutch corner three in the 4th quarter. 

The Hornets went into the 3rd quarter with a 16-point lead, and everything went downhill from there. They were outscored 26-7 in the 3rd quarter thanks to big performances by forward Daryn Hickok, who scored a game-high 25 points, and Ashley Thoms, who had 14 points. The Wildcats (1-17, 1-14 Big Sky) had five players score in the double figures.

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The Hornets struggled to defend the Wildcats inside the paint and had costly turnovers down the stretch.

The Hornets will have a chance at revenge Saturday at 11 a.m. when they face the Wildcats again.

Sac State men’s basketball falls to 1-6 in the last month

It was a battle through and through, but the end result wasn’t desirable, as the Hornets lost 82-73 to the Weber State Wildcats on Thursday. 

The Hornets (7-9, 4-7 Big Sky) held the Wildcats (15-5, 10-3 Big Sky) to 0-4 on 3-point shooting early and 23% from deep for the game. The Wildcats are a good shooting team, so this was huge but not enough. The Hornets had four double-digit scorers led by senior guard Bryce Fowler, who had a team-high 19 points. 

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The game was back and forth until the final five minutes of the game, when the Wildcats jumped ahead to a 10-point lead. The Hornets were outrebounded 30-29 and struggled from deep, only shooting 30%. 

“There’s seven plays I had in my mind where we did some un-Sac State like things, that resulted in buckets for them,” head coach Brian Katz said. “It’s score, stop, score. That’s the game.” 

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The Hornets look to avenge the loss with their rematch against the Wildcats, Saturday at 11:05 a.m.

Baseball cancels one series and schedules another

The Sac State men’s baseball team (1-2) was set for their home opener to kick off at John Smith Field on Thursday against Pacific University, but the game and series was postponed due to COVID-19 contact tracing in the Tigers’ program

Sac State moved quickly to add games, pivoting to host the Texas State Bobcats to a three-game series, starting with a doubleheader Saturday with the first pitch at 2 p.m. 

The Hornets opened the season last weekend dropping 2-of-3 against Arizona State University.