Amid a storm surging through Northern California, Sacramento State found themselves in a dry spell as the UC Davis Aggies poured on the points en route to a 31-point victory on Wednesday.
The Aggies picked apart the Hornet defense all night, hitting 45% from the field in their 76-45 rout over Sac State.
Shredding the Hornets from deep, the Aggies hit nine triples on 43% and got anything they wanted. Consistent defensive lapses left Sac State exposed on backdoor cuts, allowing easy points at the basket.
Trying to compensate for the cuts to the rim, the Hornets swapped their man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone.
The defensive switch for the Hornets rotated defenders into the middle of the paint, leaving 3-point shooters wide open. UC Davis senior guard Tova Sabel and redshirt junior center Megan Norris took advantage of the Hornets’ defense.
Hornets’ senior forward Jaydia Martin said the defensive performance wasn’t there on Wednesday.
“I think all of us knew what we needed to do tonight,” Martin said. “We just didn’t execute to the level that we wanted to.”
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Sabel tallied 16 points on the night, knocking down two straight threes at the end of the first quarter to make it 26-16 and awarded Davis a double-digit lead they’d never give up.
Norris added an additional 10 of her season-high 21 points against Sac State in the first quarter and was an issue in the post against the Hornets. She was fed the ball on the block and found success facing a defense that continuously sends opponents to the line.
Davis slowed the game down, shutting down any chance of transition points for Sac State by getting to the line eight times in the first quarter. The Aggies were sent to the line 26 times and knocked down 23 of them, compared to Sac State’s 10-of-17.
This is the first time Sac State has had to play catch-up this season but instead shot themselves out of the game with bad shot selection. The Hornets’ ice-cold shooting resulted in 16 straight misses from the field, stretching from the third quarter to the early fourth.
“Our inability to score because we’re taking too many contested shots and not finishing off [2-footers] really exposed us tonight,” Sac State head coach Aaron Kallhoff said. “It was the first time we played behind all year, and we didn’t show the capabilities to adapt and perform.”
Poor performances out of the half have been a recurring theme for Sac State, but none more noticeable than Wednesday’s 7-point third quarter.
“At the end of the day, it’s about executing,” Kallhoff said. “They looked very disinterested at the start, so that’s something that will be addressed.”
Shooting was a universal problem for the Hornets, especially from deep. The Hornets only managed 1-of-10 from three, compared to the Aggies’ 9-of-21. The Hornets hit their lone 3-pointer in the second quarter off a catch-and-shoot from redshirt freshman guard Sofia Alonso.
Redshirt junior guard Benthe Versteeg said that to compensate for a lackluster offense, the defense needs to bear the weight.
“It was not going well,” Versteeg said. “We couldn’t really score. When you need to rely on defense, that’s where we were lacking today.”
The Hornets have a week off to take a look in the mirror before they get a chance to bounce back in Miami at the Florida International University Thanksgiving Tournament on Friday, Nov. 29.
“After losses like this, you got to take a look internally and see what you can do better,” Martin said. “We can do better as a team, so I think it’ll be a lot of us figuring it out.”
