OMAHA, Neb. — Senior Jaydia Martin finished with a game-high 21 points while sophomore Lina Falk recorded her first career double-double, but a late Sacramento State rally came up just short on Saturday afternoon as the Hornets fell to home-standing Omaha, 67-63, at Baxter Arena.
A bid for three-straight victories was clipped as Sacramento State fell to 6-4 overall, while the Mavericks won their fifth-straight overall this season to improve to 6-4 overall.
Martin, who scored 31 points in the Hornets' win over Kansas City on Wednesday night, finished 8-for-14 from the field and added five free throws to go with three rebounds, three steals, and three blocked shots in 34 minutes.
She was one of three Hornets to finish in double figures as Falk hit 6-of-12 from the field for 13 points to go with a career-high 11 rebounds and three assists. Junior Benthe Versteeg added 13 more points for her fifth double-digit scoring performance of the year to go with five assists, while freshman Noemi Arvai came off the bench to add seven points and seven rebounds.
Tied at the break after trailing by as many as 13 points in the opening quarter, Sacramento State continued to rally and took their first lead since the opening the game with the first basket of the day just 36 seconds in as a Versteeg jumper gave the Hornets a 34-32 advantage with 6:41 remaining in the third.
The two teams traded baskets over the next two minutes as a lay-up by Versteeg had her team up 40-38 before Omaha closed a period strong. The Mavericks finished the quarter on an 11-2 run and made it 13-2 thanks to a pair of free throws to start the fourth after Sacramento State was whistled for a technical foul.
Omaha rebuild its lead back to 12 points with 5:25 to go but, just like the second quarter when the they used an 11-0 run to erase an early deficit, the Hornets did not go away quietly. A 6-0 spurt halved the deficit and Sacramento State sandwiched a Mavs basket with one from Martin and a three-pointer by Falk to make it an 11-2 run and a three-point game, 62-59, with 1:04 to play.
A basket at the other end briefly stopped the bleeding for Omaha, but Versteeg answered with her first three-pointer of the season with 24 seconds to play, pulling the Hornets to within a pair, 64-62.
However, that's where the rally ran out of gas as the Mavericks finished 3-of-4 from the line in that stretch to ice the contest.
Sacramento State rallied to shoot 46 percent from the field for the game after being held to just 25 percent in the opening 10 minutes, including hitting a 62 percent (8-for-13) in the fourth quarter to help power the comeback attempt. Meanwhile, Omaha hit just 39 percent from the floor for the contest, but finished 18-of-20 from the line and turned 24 Hornet miscues into 22 points.
With final exams looming on the horizon, the Hornets next return to the court on Sunday (Dec. 15) at 2 p.m., hosting Bay Area rival San Jose State at The Nest. It will be the final home game for Sacramento State for a month as it follows with five straight contests on the road, including the team's Big Sky Conference opener at Portland State on Jan. 4.
