Sacramento State’s perfect start to the season ended due to a fourth-quarter collapse and an abundance of whistles against Long Beach State.

With 0.5 seconds left in the game, an inbound pass was thrown to senior forward Jaydia Martin. The Sac State forward caught the pass and was immediately fouled.

A lengthy review followed and determined Martin was not in the shooting motion, forcing the Hornets to take the ball out from the baseline, instead of shooting free throws, with just 0.2 to go.

“That should’ve been two free throws if anything,” Sac State head coach Aaron Kallhoff said. “We’re tipping it in, going to shoot and they’re like ‘Nah she didn’t have possession of the ball’.”

The Beach snapped the Hornets’ 4-game win streak in a 69-68 nail-biter at The Nest. A game Sac State should’ve won, slipped away after a 13-2 Long Beach run midway through the fourth quarter that buried the Hornets.

“We had a 9-point lead. We didn’t close out the fourth quarter,” Kallhoff said. “That’s the difference in the game.”

Long Beach senior guard Savannah Tucker had her way with Sac State’s defense, dropping a game-high 29 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists. Twelve of Tucker’s total points came during the Beach’s fourth-quarter surge.

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Early in the game, Sac State struggled to find the bottom of the net and found themselves in foul trouble. Martin and redshirt junior guard Benthe Versteeg picked up two personal fouls each in the first quarter and only played a combined 13 minutes in the opening half.

“Just have to be a little more disciplined on the fouls and make sure I don’t get out of the game,” Martin said.

Foul trouble forced redshirt freshman guard Sofia Alonso and freshman forward Brooklyn Taylor to carry the load in place of Versteeg and Martin.

Taylor had a solid outing, posting six points and eight rebounds in her extended minutes. Alonso was an efficient scorer, finishing with 17 points, five assists and five rebounds, but struggled to take care of the ball.

Alonso played her worst half of the season against Long Beach, turning the ball over five times in 15 minutes. Two of the five were travels.

Alonso wasn’t the only Hornet guard to struggle in the first half. Sophomore guard Lina Falk didn’t find success from three in the opening two quarters, going 1-of-4, something that has been an issue all season.

Throughout the entire first half, neither team was able to create consistent offense. The Hornets were 37% from the field and a dreadful 13% from deep. The Beach were 25% from the field and shot 33% from three on six attempts.

After entering the half with a 32-31 lead, the offense came out on fire to start the third quarter. Versteeg, who only had one assist at the break, began to control the game with her quick style of play.

She darted around the court and set up teammates for wide-open shots beyond the arc. Versteeg drove down the lane and hit Alonso twice for a pair of threes on her way to five straight assisted baskets during the third quarter.

The barrage of threes in the third gave the Hornets a small 4-point cushion heading into the final frame, but they failed to hold onto it.

The start of the fourth got off to a promising start for Sac State, quickly jumping out to a 9-point lead in under three minutes. Attacking the paint, the Hornets started to grab control of the game behind buckets from Martin, Alonso, Versteeg and Falk.

The swift start to the final quarter was short-lived though.

A 62-53 lead vanished down the stretch. The Hornets hit only one of their last seven shots and piled up four turnovers.

Three of their four turnovers came after the run that pushed them to a 9-point lead, including a travel, a bad pass and a crucial Versteeg lost ball turnover with one second to go.

After losing possession of the ball, the Hornets attempted to chase it down, ultimately sending Tucker to the free-throw line with 0.8 seconds left.

Tucker nailed 1-of-2 from the line and that’s all Long Beach needed to put them on top 69-68.

Untimely errors cost Sac State a fifth win and sent them to 4-1 on the season.

“We know what we have to work on in practice, we know our coaches will pick us up,” Falk said. “We will just learn from it.”

The Hornets will have another shot to grab a win when they travel to take on rival UC Davis Aggies on Wednesday at 6 p.m.