SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Off to the best start in school history, the Sacramento State women's basketball team takes on its second-straight Big West Conference opponent on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 17), welcoming Long Beach State to The Nest for a 2 p.m. tip-off. Including Sunday's contest, all three Division I opponents for the Hornets thus far have been from the Big West Conference as Sacramento State has also faced UC San Diego and Cal State Fullerton.
GAME #5
WHAT: Long Beach State (1-1, 0-0 Big West) at Sacramento State (4-0, 0-0 Big Sky)
WHEN: Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024
TIME: 2 p.m. PT
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
ARENA: The Nest
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com
GAME NOTES: Sacramento State | Long Beach State
THE COACHES
• Sacramento State's Aaron Kallhoff is entering his second year at the helm of the Hornets' program. Prior to taking the job at Sacramento State, he served five years as a head coach at the junior college level and spent 10 years as an assistant at five Division I programs: Arkansas State, TCU, LSU, Penn State, and BYU
• Long Beach State's Amy Wright is in her second season at the helm of the program after finishing 15-18 in her first year at the helm. Prior to her arrival in Southern California, Wright had stops at Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Arizona State, Cleveland State, Western Kentucky, and South Florida.
HORNETS AT A GLANCE
• Sacramento State returns five letter winners and two starters off of last season's squad, while welcoming nine new faces to the roster -- five of those via transfer
• Three of those transfers are from Division I programs -- all of whom will be very familiar to the Hornets. Sacramento State welcomes back Katie Peneueta, who spent 2023-24 at NC State and helped the Wolfpack to an NCAA "Final Four" appearance, while Jaydia Martin and Fatoumata Jaiteh come to Northern California from Big Sky rivals Eastern Washington and Northern Arizona
• Record-setting junior guard Benthe Versteeg is the leading returning scorer after averaging 11.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game while setting the school single-season record with 208 assists (6.71 assists per game)
• Sophomore Lina Falk started 19 of the team's 31 games -- including each of the last 14 -- and reached double figures five times, including a career-high 17 against Idaho State in the Big Sky Tournament
ABOUT THE BEACH
• Long Beach State enters the weekend with a 1-1 overall record after opening the season with a 67-65 win over William & Mary before falling at Pacific, 81-65, on Friday night
• The Beach returns six letter winners and a pair of starters off of last season's squad that finished 15-18 overall and 8-12 in the Big West Conference to tie for seventh
• Long Beach State was picked to finish fourth in the Big West Preseason Coaches Poll behind Hawai'i, UC Irvine, and UC Davis
• Senior guard Savannah Tucker leads the team in scoring, averaging 12.0 ppg through the first two contests, but is shooting only .250 (6-for-24) from the field
• Freshman guard JaQuoia Brown leads the Beach on the glass, grabbing 7.0 rpg while averaging 6.5 ppg and shooting 42 percent from the field
SERIES NOTABLES
• Long Beach State leads the all-time series with Sacramento State, 5-2
• Sunday's contest marks the first time in more than a decade that the Hornets and the Beach will face one another, with the last meeting a 74-71 win by Long Beach State on Nov. 9, 2012
• Sacramento State won two straight in the series in 1997 (73-60) and 14 years later in 2011 (74-67) -- both of those meetings at The Nest where the Hornets are 2-0 in the series
• Prior to the back-to-back meetings in 1996 and 1997, the two teams hadn't faced one another since 1975-76
• All but one of the seven all-time meetings have been decided by fewer than 10 points with the only outlier the Hornets' 13-point win in 1997
CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State enters Thursday's game a combined 90-105 against the current Big West Conference alignment, including a 2-0 record this year
• UC San Diego was the only Big West member that the Hornets hadn't faced until Nov. 7, when they posted a 71-60 victory over the Tritons
• The Hornets own 32 wins over UC Davis -- the most against any current Big West member -- with 21 more victories coming against CSUN
• Sunday's game against Long Beach State is the third of four against Big West members in 2024-25, with one more remaining against Causeway rival UC Davis on Nov. 20
• The Hornets were 1-3 against the Big West last year, defeating CSUN on Dec. 2 for Head Coach Aaron Kallhoff's first Sacramento State coaching win, while falling to Cal State Fullerton (61-51), UC Davis (79-57), and Cal Poly (72-55)
• The year prior, the Hornets were 6-1 against the Big West during their Big Sky championship run in 2022-23
FOUR AND OH, MY!
• Thursday's victory at Cal State Fullerton improved Sacramento State to 4-0 on the season which, according to available records, is the best start to a season in school history
• The Hornets had three straight wins in mid-to-late February and added another in early March during the 1972-73 season, but the official records for that campaign are incomplete and it is currently unknown if those games are consecutive without another result mixed in
JUST WIN, BABY
• The Hornets haven't just been winning to start 2024-25, they've been winning BIG
• All four of Sacramento State's games this season have been by double figures and the Hornets' last six victories dating back to last season have all been by double digits -- a run that
includes a 16-point win at Northern Arizona (Feb. 15) and an 18-point win over Idaho State (March 9)
• Sacramento State's 33-point triumph over Lincoln University on Nov. 10 was the program's largest since a 59-point win over Pacific Union on Dec. 19, 2019
• The 78 points in the win over Jessup were the most in a season-opener for Sacramento State since an 88-85 win over Cal Poly to tip-off the 2018-19 campaign
• Meanwhile, the 88 points in the win over Lincoln University were the most by the Hornets since a 96-88 loss against Idaho on Feb. 22, 2020
• The Hornets have now won four straight by double digits for the first time since the 2022-23 team won four straight from Feb. 27 to March 8 en route to a Big Sky regular season and tournament title and an NCAA berth
PUT A LID ON IT
• The Sacramento State defense was the definition of stingy in its road win at Cal State Fullerton, holding the Titans to only 40 points and a .279 field goal percenatge en route to a 27-point victory
• The 40 points allowed are the fewest since Pacific Union managed only 35 in a 94-35 Hornet victory on Dec. 19, 2019, and were the fewest allowed to a Division I opponent since a 78-35 win at Montana on Jan. 8, 2011
• Meanwhile, Cal State Fullerton's field goal percentage was the lowest by a Sacramento State opponent since UC Davis shot .278 on Nov. 22, 2022, in a 67-45 Hornet victory at the Golden 1 Center in Downtown Sacramento
• In addition, the Titans' four-point fourth quarter marked the fewest points allowed in a single period by Sacramento State since holding Northern Arizona to a four-point second quarter in the Big Sky Tournament title game on March 8, 2023
• With a nine-point second quarter and the four-point fourth quarter by the Titans, the Hornets' defense has now allowed 10-or-fewer points in six quarters this year
THIS IS PERFECT... PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT
• Freshman Sofia Alonso just can't miss from the line to start the season, opening the year a perfect 16-for-16 -- the most in the Big Sky entering the weekend -- from the charity stripe following her 4-for-4 performance at Cal State Fullerton Thursday
• Alonso is one of 17 players in the NCAA that are still perfect from the line with at least 10 free throws attempted (as of Nov. 14)
• The streak of consecutive made free throws is the longest since former Hornet Summah Hanson was also 16-for-16 from Dec. 2 to Jan. 11 of last season
• With her next make from the line (without a miss), Alonso will have the longest streak since Camariah King went 22-for-22 in between misses from Dec. 6, 2019 at Seattle U to Jan. 11, 2020 at Weber State
SOFIA THE FIRST
• Alonso has been one of -- if not THE -- first option off the bench for the Hornets thus far this season, ranking second on the team in scoring at 10.3 ppg while averaging just over 27 minutes per game off the bench
• Alonso finished with a career-high 13 points in the win at Cal State Fullerton, adding career bests in both rebounds (5) and steals (5)
• It marked the third time in four games that the Spaniard has finished with double-digit points
• She has multiple steals in three of the four contests and leads the team with 11 swipes overall -- a total that leads the Big Sky Conference entering the weekend while ranking third in the league at 2.75 spg
SWIPER, NO SWIPING!
• Alonso's five steals were the most in a game by a Hornet since Solape Amusan had five against Weber State on Feb. 10, 2024
• Sacramento State's defense has accounted for 44 steals through the first four contests this season, ranking second in the Big Sky with 11.0 spg and trailing only league-leading Montana State (17.33 spg in three games)
• The Hornets' 44 steals through four games are well ahead of last year's pace when it took them their first eight games to reach 45 steals on the season
• Sacramento State has posted double-digit steals in three of its first four games, including a season-high 14 steals against Lincoln University -- the most since the Hornets had 16 against Cal Poly on Dec. 21 of last season
• Three players rank among the top 10 in steals in the Big Sky entering the weekend: Alonso (3rd at 2.75 spg), Jaydia Martin is tied for fifth (2.50 spg), and Fatoumata Jaiteh (2.00 spg)
FALK THIS WAY
• Sophomore Lina Falk has picked up right where she left off last year in the scoring department, finishing in double figures in three of the team's first four games and leading the team in scoring at 14.3 ppg
• After tying her career high with 17 points against Jessup in the opener, she did herself one better against Lincoln University, setting a new career high with 18 points against the Oaks, shooting 8-of-10 from the field
• The eight makes from the field were the most in a game by a Hornet since Benthe Versteeg finished 8-of-14 in a win at Northern Arizona on Feb. 15, 2024
• Falk's .800 field goal percentage was the highest in a game by a Hornet (with a minimum of five attempts) since Summah Hanson was 4-of-5 (.800) against Idaho State in the first round of last year's Big Sky Conference Tournament
ROOM TO BOARD
• Every night there has been a different hero on the boards for the Hornets as six different players have combined to lead or share the team lead on the glass in Sacramento State's first four games
• Falk (9 vs. Jessup), Jaiteh (9 vs. UC San Diego), Brooklyn Taylor (10 vs. Lincoln), and the trio of Martin, Versteeg, and Alonso grabbed a team-high five boards each in the win at Fullerton
• The Hornets have outrebounded the opposition by an average of 12.3 rpg -- which leads the Big Sky by nearly three rebounds per game
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
• Each of the Hornets' first three games this year were first-time opponents
• Sacramento State has, possibly, four more first-time opponents on its schedule in 2024-25: Abilene Christian (twice), Kansas City, Omaha, and a possible meeting with Wagner at the FIU Thanksgiving Tournament
STABLE CONDITION
• The Hornets have used the same starting five (Versteeg, Rubi Gray, Falk, Martin, and Jaiteh) in all four games to start the season
• It's a stark contrast to the 2023-24 campaign when Sacramento State had eight different starting lineups through the team's first eight games
