The Sacramento State women’s basketball team officially tipped off its 2023-24 season with a disastrous 48-point loss to Washington on Monday.
Many of the issues that plagued Sac State in their Oct. 26 exhibition loss against Jessup were still apparent in this game as the young team looks to build more chemistry with each other.
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The opening minutes looked promising for the Hornets as freshman forward Summah Hanson found redshirt sophomore guard Benthe Versteeg on a cut to the basket to score the first points of the season.
Versteeg remained aggressive early on. She blew by her defender and made a floater at the rim to make it a five-point game.
The quarter slipped away from Sac State when they couldn’t keep Washington off of the offensive glass. The Huskies secured eight offensive rebounds in the quarter which led to multiple second-chance points.
“We did not box out and they crashed the boards,” Sac State head coach Aaron Kallhoff, who also made his head coach debut on Monday, said.
The Huskies went on a 12-3 run to open the second quarter that consisted of six points from sophomore guard Elle Ladine. Ladine finished the game with a game-high 20 points on 60% shooting from the field.
Sac State was held to only five points in the quarter and committed multiple turnovers against the Washington defense.
“It’s going to take some time for everyone to get their feet under them and make the right decisions,” Versteeg said.
Over half of the Huskies’ second-quarter points came from mistakes made by the Hornets. Washington finished the game with a huge 30-2 advantage in points off turnovers.
“A lot of times our turnovers were in the middle of the floor and that led to easy scoring opportunities for them,” Kallhoff said.
An especially deflating turnover came with time expiring in the second quarter. A bad pass by Hanson led to Huskies junior guard Jayda Noble throwing up a heave a couple of feet beyond the three-point line from the Alaska Airlines logo. It banked in at the buzzer to extend the lead to 40-13.
Ladine remained on fire to start the third quarter, making back-to-back three-point shots and a putback layup. The Huskies just could not miss from beyond the arc, and they rattled in three three-point shots to end the quarter.
Sac State got their offense going with Hanson back on the court. In the exhibition, Hanson showed potential to be one of the Hornets’ top scorers this season, but she was only able to play four first-half minutes due to foul trouble.
Hanson showcased her scoring ability by hitting a turnaround jump shot after making a nice move to lose her defender. She finished the quarter with seven points in eight minutes.
After Washington shot 55% from three in the first three quarters, the game was out of reach by the fourth and the Huskies held onto their commanding lead to win the season opener 76-28.
“Playing on the road is always tough as you’re going against the opposition and their home court advantage,” Hanson said. “It also, however, poses a great opportunity and challenge as it did for us tonight, which will help us grow, get better and prepare for our next game.”
The Hornets will travel to Reno, Nevada in hopes to bounce back against Nevada on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
