SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State women's basketball team carries a 2-0 record into its home opener on Monday (Nov. 9), playing host to Cal State East Bay at 6:30 p.m. at Hornet Pavilion. The game will be streamed live on the ESPN+ platform.

GAME #3
WHAT: Cal State East Bay (0-0, 0-0 CCAA) at Sacramento State (2-0, 0-0 Big West)
WHEN: Monday, Nov. 9, 2026
TIME: 6:30 PM PT
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
ARENA: Hornet Pavilion
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetSports.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com
GAME NOTES: Sacramento State | Cal State East Bay | The Big West

THE COACHES
• Sacramento State head coach Aaron Kallhoff enters his fourth season at the helm of the Hornets' program, going 38-61 in his three-plus years
• He is 116-137 overall in eight years as a head coach when you include one season at Allen County Community College (Kansas) and four years at Hill College (Texas)
• Jenny Thigpin is in her fifth season at the helm of the Cal State East Bay program, posting a 46-64 overall record in her previous four years
• She is quite familiar with the Hornets after spending two seasons (2020-22) as an assistant at then-Big Sky Conference rival Northern Arizona

LAST TIME OUT
• Sacramento State led wire-to-wire in picking up its second win of the year, holding off a late charge from host Nevada for a 70-60 victory
• The Hornets were led by the backcourt of Koko Akridge (23) and Natalie Picton (17), who combined for 40 of the team's points on the night
• Sacramento State opened the game on a 13-2 run and led by as many as 19 following a 15-4 burst in the second en route to a 44-27 lead at the break
• The Wolf Pack rallied in the fourth, opening the quarter with a 10-2 run then scoring seven straight points to reel the Hornets back to within single digits at 67-60
• Picton then hit a free throw and Elizabeth Abiara scored inside for the final points of the night

ABOUT THE HORNETS
• Sacramento State is coming off a 2025-26 campaign that saw it finish 15-18 overall and 8-10 in its final season in the Big Sky Conference
• The Hornets were fifth in the regular season standings and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament for only the fifth time in school history
• Sacramento State returns seven letter winners, a pair of starters, and welcomes seven new faces for the 2026-27 season
• Senior guard Natalie Picton was an All-Big Sky Tournament Team selection in her first year as a Hornet, averaging 13.4 ppg and 3.7 rpg while dishing out 2.1 assists and a team-high 2.2 steals per game
• Senior forward Elizabeth Abiara started 17 of 31 games last year, shooting 51 percent from the field and ranking third on the team in rebounding at 4.1 boards per contest

ABOUT THE PIONEERS
• Cal State East Bay has yet to officially start its season, facing Sacramento State in the team's second exhibition against a Division I school
• The Pioneers opened the season with a bang in an exhibition against San Jose State, erasing a 21-point second-half deficit en route to a 76-74 overtime victory over the Spartans, who did not make a basket in the fourth quarter
• Aloha Akaka, the team's leading scorer at 10.6 ppg last season, led CSUEB with a game-high 26 points, hitting 12-of-22 from the field
• Gabby Wright added a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds
• Last season, the Pioneers finished 12-16 overall and 11-11 in CCAA play, but finished the year with three consecutive wins

SERIES NOTABLES
• Sacramento State leads the all-time series with Cal State East Bay by a 22-8 count
• Monday marks the first time that the two schools will play a game that counts (at least for one of the schools) since an 81-38 Hornet win on Feb. 12, 1991
• Sacramento State has won three straight in the series with the Pioneers, sweeping the regular season series in 1991 and winning the second of two meetings in 1991
• The Hornets have won 12 of the 14 all-time meetings at home between the two schools, including the previous six games in Sacramento from 1984-91

THE LONG AND WINNING ROAD
• A win at UT Arlington to open the year and a victory at Nevada on Saturday night has the Hornets off to one of their best starts away from home
• The 2-0 record to start the season away from the friendly confines marks the first time in the program's Division I history that Sacramento State has opened a season with two straight road victories
• The Hornets are also 2-0 to start a season for the third consecutive year

LEADER OF THE PACK
• Saturday's win at Nevada evened the all-time series with the Wolf Pack at 27 wins apiece
• It also marked the Hornets' first win in Reno since a 77-54 victory on Dec. 29, 1993, ending a run of eight straight defeats on Nevada's home floor
• The win also marked the first back-to-back wins by Sacramento State in the series since the Hornets won five straight from 1991-94

A "PIC"-TURE WORTH 1,000 POINTS
• Senior guard Natalie Picton is closing in on a career milestone that is well within reach during the 2026-27 season
• Including her first two collegiate seasons at Montana State, Picton stands just 103 points (as of Nov. 7) away from scoring 1,000 points in her career, entering this week with 897 points to her name following her 17-point performance at Nevada
• Last season with the Hornets, Picton finished with a career-high 414 points to rank second on the team -- a total that nearly matched her offensive output from her two seasons with the Bobcats (457 points)
• Combined with former teammate Rubi Gray's 467 points, the duo became the first Hornet teammates to score 400-or-more points in a single season since Kahlaijah Dean (685) and Isnelle Natabou (522) in 2022-23
• Following last year's performance, Picton is one of only 31 players to score more than 400 points in a single season in the program's Division I era

KOKO BEWARE
• I guess the 14 points scored by junior Koko Akridge in the Hornets' season opener was just an appetizer
• Akridge followed up her night at UT Arlington with a 23-point outburst in the win at Nevada, giving her her first 20-point performance as a Hornet and the third of her career 
• The 23 points also matched Akridge's collegiate high in scoring, equaling her offensive output in games against Dayton and Le Moyne last season while she was at Long Island University
• Akridge's total marked the most points by a Hornet since Rubi Gray finished with 24 at Idaho State in last year's regular season finale
• Of Akridge's 23 points against the Wolf Pack, 10 of those came in the third quarter alone -- the most in a single quarter by a Hornet this season

PERFECT "10"
• We're going to jinx is aren't we?
• Akridge is also enjoying a hot start at the line for the Hornets, finishing 4-for-4 from the stripe to open the year a perfect 10-for-10
• She is just under halfway to a spot in the school's top 10 for consecutive free throws made in the program's DIvision I history, needing to open the year 22-for-22 to join five other Hornet greats for a tie for sixth

SPEAKING OF PERFECT
• Are we going to jinx this one as well?
• Junior Achol Magot has not yet missed from the field to start her Hornet career, following up her 4-for-4 performance at UT Arlington with the same shooting night at Nevada to put her at 8-for-8 overall from the floor and ranking fourth on the team in scoring at 8.0 ppg
• Magot, who shot 61 percent from the field last year at Arizona, tied her third-highest single-game point total of her career, trailing only the 12 points she scored against TCU and 10 against Bellarmine last season with the Wildcats

PLAYING FROM AHEAD
• Sacramento State has led for all but one minute of game time in its first two games of the season, leading wire-to-wire in its win over Nevada while out-pacing UT Arlington for more than 38 minutes in its season-opening victory
• Prior to the team's win at Nevada, the last wire-to-wire triumph for the Hornets came on Jan. 3 of last season in a 60-39 win over Weber State

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN, INTO THE FIRE
• A mere week after wrapping up her season on the soccer pitch, sophomore Jaety Mandaquit wasted little time in getting back to action on Saturday, playing nearly 10 minutes as a reserve for the Hornets at Nevada
• Mandaquit wrapped up her third year with the Sacramento State women's soccer program on Oct. 31 at Cal Poly, finishing the season with four goals and an assist to finish fourth on the team with nine points while starting 17 of the team's 19 matches
• She has started 52 of her 53 appearances on the soccer pitch, collecting six goals and one assist in her career
• Last season she appeared in 31 of the team's 33 games on the court, making 11 starts and averaging 3.3 ppg and 2.4 rpg while finishing third on the team with 41 steals