Behind a raucous crowd at The Nest, the Sac State women’s basketball team downed the Portland State Vikings 73-62, marking the team’s seventh win in the last eight games. 

“We’re learning how to win,” said head coach Mark Campbell. “We’re learning how to execute, we’re learning how to play 40 minutes of good basketball,” 

It was a special night for senior guard Summer Menke, who would become the 15th women’s basketball player in Sac State History to reach 1000 points in her career.

“I put in my time here so it’s good to get some recognition like that,” said Menke.

It was all Hornets from start to finish as they jumped out to a quick start on the Vikings, led by graduate guard Lianna Tillman and sophomore center Isnelle Natabou.

Natabou would dominate the boards, grabbing six rebounds and scoring six points in the first quarter, with Tillman adding in nine points.

The Hornets would go up by 12 after a put-back jumper from Tillman, but would be up by nine at the end of the quarter after a three-pointer from redshirt senior Savannah Dhaliwal.

Sac State struggled to score in the second quarter, putting up just 10 points as they had a hard time taking care of the ball, finishing with seven turnovers in the quarter.

Fortunately, the Vikings would not do much better, as they scored 12 points and five turnovers in the second quarter.

Most of the points for the second quarter would come from Natabou as the Vikings managed to shut down Tillman.

Sac State went into halftime up 31-24 after senior guard Jazmin Carrasco knocked down both free throws.

Coming out of the half, Menke would take over, going 3-3 from the field and scoring eight points in the third. 

Tillman took the offensive torch from there in the fourth, getting 12 of her 27 points in the quarter, including back-to-back three pointers.

Once the Vikings started intentionally fouling, Campbell put in the Hornets’ best free-throw shooter, Carrasco, who is shooting at a 91% clip from the line this season.

She would go 3-4 down the stretch to secure the 73-62 Sac State win and stomp over the .500 mark for the Hornets

“I try to stay cool, calm, and collected and just sink free throws for my team,” said Carrasco. 

Sac State will hit the road to play Northern Colorado at 5 p.m on Thursday at the Bank of Colorado Arena.