If Saturday’s game was a wave, then the Hornets caught it late and rode it to victory.
The Hornets entered the Beach territory looking to go back-to-back on the road. With a change in venue from Long Beach State’s usual Walter Pyramid due to poor weather, the Hornets faced an aggressive host in the program’s practice gym, The Gold Mine.
The Beach was equally intense on both sides of the ball, keeping the Hornets outside of the arc and unable to spread the ball early on. The Beach snagged offensive rebounds from the Hornets’ grasp, infiltrating and scoring in extended possessions.
Down five points in the second quarter, Sacramento State put up a fight with junior guard Natalie Picton and junior forward Keanna Salave’a reeling in the deficit with reverse layups.
The Beach rolled back in like the tide, sinking a three and drawing a foul to extinguish the Hornets’ momentum.
The Hornet fell behind as the Beach extended the deficit to seven.
“We came out flat,” head coach Aaron Kallhoff said. “We let one player score 29 points.”
Long Beach rinsed and repeated the same game plan, and it worked. They built an 11-point lead towards the end of the first half.
As hope dimmed, the Hornets struck gold.
Exiting halftime, the Hornets focused on winning the rebound battle. As a result, they shrunk Long Beach’s lead with the help of senior forward Fatoumata Jaiteh and sophomore forward Brooklyn Taylor, who combined for 13 rebounds.
Jaiteh recorded five steals on the night. One of them came at mid court, tossing the rock out for her teammates to grab as she took an arm to the head.
Kallhoff awarded her the game’s Iron Hornet for displaying her intense levels of effort and defensive grit against the Beach.
Fouls flew in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, and the Hornets jumped into the bonus early in the fourth quarter down by one.
Picton set her crosshairs on the basket, sinking a clutch three to gain the lead.
“My mindset coming in was to set the tone with energy,” Picton said. “As the game went on, that mindset didn’t really change, but it definitely sharpened.”
Picton and sophomore guard Rubi Gray lead the team in points with 12 and 13, respectively. They have both scored beyond the arc and at the line for most of their contributions.
“I noticed they were giving a little space in screens and were slow to shift on certain matchups,” Picton said. “I recognized that, stayed patient, read the floor and picked my spots.”
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Though redshirt senior guard Benthe Versteeg started off slow, she began to rally around her teammates in the latter half of the game on both sides of the ball.
“The defense was important,” said Versteeg. “When we got stops, we were able to get going in transition, and that led us to getting some easy points.”
With five seconds to go, Versteeg shut the case on the game with ice in her veins.
From the top of the Beach’s territory, Versteeg seized the moment, dashing to her right and tossing a floater that ricocheted off the glass and sunk through the nylon.
“It gave me confidence when Coach Kallhoff wanted the ball in my hands,” Versteeg said.
As a comeback win for the Hornets became almost concrete, the Beach hurled a desperate three in a last-ditch effort to push the game to overtime.
The chance of the shot going in dissolved like the crashing waves just three miles from campus, leaving nothing but a 57-54 victory for the Hornets.
“I’m thankful to get on this plane 4-1,” Kallhoff said. “We’ll just keep building this program.”
