SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sophomore Lina Falk tied her career high with 17 points to lead a group of five Hornets in double figures as Sacramento State led wire-to-wire in a 78-51 victory over visiting Jessup University in the season opener on Monday night at The Nest.
The victory snapped a five-game skid for the Hornets in season-opening tilts as they improved to 1-0 overall heading into Thursday's (Nov. 7) 6:30 p.m. contest against UC San Diego at home. Monday's contest was listed as an exhibition for the Warriors, who are making their debut as an NCAA Division II squad in 2024-25.
Falk finished 7-of-13 from the field en route to her career-high tying total, adding a career-high nine rebounds in 31 minutes. She matched her scoring output against Idaho State in last year's Big Sky Tournament opener and broke her previous high of eight rebounds set at Montana on Jan. 27 of last season.
Senior newcomer Jaydia Martin did a little bit of everything in her Sacramento State debut, finishing with 16 points, six rebounds, six assists, and four steals in 34 minutes, finishing a plus-31 on the night.
A trio of Hornets finished with 10 points off the bench as redshirt freshman Sofia Alonso, redshirt sophomore Madison Butcher, and freshman Noemi Arvai all reached double figures. Alonso, who played in only one game last season for the Hornets before suffering a season-ending injury, added four rebounds and a team-high seven assists, while Arvai grabbed seven rebounds and hit 4-of-7 from the field in her NCAA debut.
For Butcher, it was her first game since Feb. 16, 2023, at Weber State after missing the final eight contests of the Hornets' 2022-23 Big Sky Conference championship campaign and all of the 2023-24 season due to injury. In addition, freshmen Rubi Gray and Brooklyn Taylor joined Arvai by scoring their first career points on the night.
Sacramento State scored the first nine points of the contest and held the Warriors to without a point until Kayla Vieira scored inside at the 6:11 mark of the first quarter and the defense limited Jessup to just 1-of-9 from the field in the period. The Hornets closed the first on an 11-4 run to lead by 15 at 26-11, and Falk's lay-up to start the second period inched her team out to a 17-point advantage.
Leading by 22 points at the break, the Warriors tried to claw their way back in it, trimming a 25-point deficit down to just 15 thanks to a 10-0 burst over a four-minute span late in the third quarter, but that was as close as they would come. A lay-up by Martin and a put-back by Arvai stopped the bleeding and Sacramento State opened the fourth with a 13-3 burst of its own to go up by 24 just four minutes in.
A 12-0 run later in the fourth gave the Hornets their largest lead of the night at 78-43 and they cruised from there.
Sacramento State shot 45 percent from the field for the contest, including a 59 percent clip in the final quarter, while the defense limited Jessup to just 31 percent from the field. The Hornets also held a 39-32 advantage on the glass and finished with only 10 turnovers on the night while scoring 24 points off 20 Warrior miscues.
Andrea Jovicevic finished with 15 points — 11 of those coming from the free throw line — to lead Jessup, ending the night as the only Warrior in double figures.
