SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Junior guard
Koko Akridge matched her collegiate high with 23 points in 28 minutes, while senior guard
Natalie Picton added 18 more, as the Sacramento State got back into the winning column with a dominant 95-38 victory at Niagara on Saturday at the Gallagher Center in New York.
The Hornets bounced back from their first loss of the year in impressive fashion, improving to 4-1 on the year after setting a season high in points and posting its highest point total against a Division I opponent since scoring 102 at Northern Arizona on Jan. 9, 2020.
Sacramento State's 57-point margin of victory was the sixth-largest overall, and the largest over a Division I opponent, in school history. Meanwhile, the 38 points allowed were the fewest against a Division I opponent since Wagner was held to just 34 on a neutral floor on Dec. 1, 2024.
Akridge finished with her third 20-point performance in her first five games as a Hornet, hitting 7-of-10 from the floor, 5-of-7 from three-point range, and 4-of-4 from the line. Her 99 total points through the team's first five games are the most by a Sacramento State player since eventual Big Sky Player of the Year Lianna Tillman had three 20-point games and 113 total points in 2021-22.
Meanwhile, Picton hit 6-of-11 from the floor, including a pair of three-pointers, and 4-of-6 from the line en route to her fourth consecutive double-digit scoring performance, adding four rebounds and four assists in 27 minutes.
Every other Hornet finished with at least three points -- including the first-ever Division I points from
Jeniece Harmon -- as sophomore
Jelena Savic led Sacramento State on the board with nine rebounds followed closly by
Elizabeth Abiara, who finished with seven for the fourth time in five outings.
The two teams traded points and were tied at six with just under six to play in the opening quarter before the Hornets blew the game wide open. Sacramento State finished the first period on a 17-0 run over the final 5:57 to lead 23-6 at the end of the quarter, then scored the first eight points of the second quarter to make it a 31-6 lead with just two minutes gone.
A basket by the Purple Eagles (0-5 overall) stopped the bleeding, albeit briefly, as the run grew to 39-2 before a Niagara three-pointer with 2:22 left ended another 14-0 burst en route to a 52-15 lead at halftime.
The 15 points allowed in the first half were the fewest since the Hornets limited Eastern Washington to the same number in the first half of a 69-60 win in Cheney, Wash., on Feb. 19, 2026, while the six first-quarter points allowed matched the fewest in a single quarter this year and the fewest against a Division I opponent since EWU scored the same number in the first quarter of that aforementioned game.
Offensively, Sacramento State's 52 points in the first half were the most since it scored 58 in the first half against SImpson on Dec. 15 of last season and marked the first 50-point half against a Division I opponent since the Hornets scored 50 in the first against Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 21, 2025 en route to a 78-58 win.
Sacramento State scored eight of the first 11 points in third quarter to go up by 42 and the Hornets never let the Purple Eagles get closer than 35 points the rest of the way as Niagara's best run came in a 10-3 burst at the end of the third to trail by just one in the quarter scoring.
However, Sacramento State made an emphatic statement in the final 10 minutes, outscoring the Purple Eagles by a 25-6 count, including scoring the final 13 points of the game.
Overall, the Hornets shot .593 from the field, including a 67 percent clip in the second and a 64 percent clip in the fourth, and hit 11-of-22 from three-point range. Sacramento State outrebounded Niagara, 38-18, and turned 21 Purple Eagle turnovers into 28 points.
After being held scoreless two days earlier against Buffalo, the Hornet bench finished with 41 points on Saturday, outscoring their counterparts, 41-12, for the game.
Sacramento State returns home for only its second contest at Hornet Pavilion this season next Friday (Nov. 20) at 11 a.m., hosting local rival Pacific on "Field Trip Day" in its only game of the week.
