Flying high from a win against Eastern Washington at home, the Hornets came crashing down in Bozeman on Thursday against the Montana State Bobcats.
“We looked like we were stuck in the mud,” head coach Aaron Kallhoff said.
The Hornets’ offense looked murky from the start, tossing errant floaters that ricocheted into the hands of the Bobcats under the rim.
Montana State took advantage of the disorganized opening, sinking threes and finding lanes to start the game 9-0.
Kallhoff said redshirt senior guard Benthe Versteeg missed practice earlier in the week due to an illness, a factor that impacted the start of the game.
“I had a handful of kids battling the flu and we just looked exhausted,” Kallhoff said. “We looked out of the ordinary.”
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Sophomore guard Rubi Gray put the Hornets on the board late in the first quarter, laying it in with three seconds left.
Despite the team’s efforts to chip away at the lead, seven turnovers riddled their offensive pacing, leaving Kallhoff in a state of reflection.
“I told some of them afterwards, I’m going to have to sit here and really look at things,” Kallhoff said. “We were out of sync and we played right into their hands.”
The turnovers were often unforced errors. In a baseline-out-of-bounds play, Versteeg attempted to force a retry of the play by knocking the ball off the Bobcat defender and out of bounds, but mistimed her attempt. She threw the ball into the defender’s torso, who promptly caught the ball and put up an uncontested layup.
No Hornet scored in double digits, with Gray leading the scoring with eight points, Vertseeg with six and freshman guard Jaety Mandaquit with five, losing 31-66.
“The numbers reflect the performance tonight,” Kallhoff said.
Kallhoff spoke about moving forward, looking toward the Montana Grizzlies this weekend.
“We have a couple opportunities to rack up some wins,” Kallhoff said.
Kallhoff said that he’s holding his starters Versteeg, Gray, junior guard Natalie Picton and senior forward Fatoumata Jaiteh to a higher standard against the Griz.
“I need them to be cohesive and bring leadership,” Kallhoff said.
The Hornets remain in the “Treasure State” and head northwest to Missoula to face the Griz on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“We’ll get a chance to play [Montana State] at our place when we play them next time,” Kallhoff said.
