A drive-and-dish to Hornets’ senior forward Jaydia Martin was just what the doctor ordered to put what had been a sloppy game on ice.
Late in the fourth quarter, Sacramento State was clinging on to a 10-point lead. UC San Diego wouldn’t let it go, continuously making small runs to close the gap.
Martin was the recipient of a pass to the corner, where she drained an and-1 three in the face of a Triton defender to push Sac State’s lead to 14 against the UC San Diego Tritons on Thursday.
“She’s a winner,” Sac State head coach Aaron Kallhoff said about Martin. “On the court, she’s got that kind of fierce tenacity.”
The forward’s knockout punch ended what was otherwise an ugly game. Fouls and turnovers piled up quickly and seven players fouled out by the game’s end.
Four Tritons’ nights ended early due to the lack of discipline along with three Hornets. Among those who received the five personal fouls was redshirt junior guard Benthe Versteeg.
Versteeg’s night was full of ups and downs. When the team struggled to score in the first half, she was the spark for the Hornet offense, finding teammates open beyond the arc during her drives to the basket.
The speedy guard linked up with redshirt sophomore guard Madison Butcher multiple times down the stretch of the second quarter to blow the game open.
Butcher, who proved to be a difference maker off the bench, was part of the automatic Hornet offense that ended the final two minutes of the half on five straight makes in a 12-point flurry giving them a 10-point lead heading into the break.
“Whatever the team needs, I’m gonna do it,” Butcher said. “They need a three? I’m gonna get open. They need defense? I’m gonna play defense. Whoever comes off the bench, we’re ready to go.”
Butcher missed the entire 2023-24 season due to injury and has returned better than ever, averaging 13 points per game in the first two games.
“It means everything,” Butcher said about her return to the floor. “It was a great experience to be injured, to see the game from the sidelines. I don’t think I’d be the same player without it.”
The guard’s 16-point, four-rebound night kept the team afloat in times the Tritons would attempt to regain momentum with runs off the flood of Hornet miscues.
“I’m not looking for perfection,” Kallhoff said. “I just want them to play through their mistakes and we withstood their runs and answered. We found ways to get stops and manufacture enough points to give ourselves a chance.”
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Turnovers were an issue all game, causing the game to become a grind with the addition of whistles echoing through the arena. Between the two teams, there were 35 fouls and 23 turnovers in the second half, which forced the game’s pace to a screeching halt.
Both teams lived at the charity stripe with 34 of the 59 scored out of the locker rooms coming from free throws.
Frustration began to boil over for Versteeg during the third quarter, picking up fouls and turning the ball over at a high rate due to the constant pressure put on her by the Tritons.
“It was a little frustrating because we always have our third quarter where we come out a little flat,” Versteeg said. “We come out a little stiff and we struggle with scoring.”
The lack of discipline reared its head yet again late in the fourth quarter as Versteeg turned the ball over and immediately lunged toward the ball, picking up her fifth and final foul.
Despite the seven turnovers added to her stat sheet, Versteeg had another solid outing, posting 16 points, four rebounds and seven assists on 57% from the field.
It was another productive night from the bench with Sac State’s reserves tallying 30 points on the night.
With Versteeg sidelined, Butcher’s number was called to lead the way as the team’s main ball handler in crunch time.
Time and time again, Butcher excelled in the expanded role and helped Sac State close out the game with much-needed buckets and in-your-face defense to put UCSD to bed in a 71-60 victory.
This win puts them at 2-0 on the young season as they get set to face off with Lincoln University on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 2 p.m.
