The Hornet’s Nest at Sacramento State is not one of the gems of the Big Sky Conference. Frankly, it looks like a high school gym. There are volleyball lines on the floor, a Daktronics scoreboard that might have been cutting-edge technology in 1970 and a mighty seven rows of seats rising up from the hardwood floor to the back wall.
It’s a difficult place to get fired up to play a Division I basketball game in, and the Sacramento State women don’t make it easy on visiting teams. Despite down seasons the last few years, head coach Bunky Harkleroad always has the Hornets playing hard, and they play a hard-pressing, 3-point-hoisting style that’s conducive to stealing upsets.
All those hazards conspired to nearly trip up the Idaho State Bengals on Saturday, but with a few late runs, the ISU women escaped the Hornet’s Nest with a 77-70 win to maintain — by the skin of their teeth — their perfect start to Big Sky Conference play.
“We just did not have the normal kick that we usually have,” ISU head coach Seton Sobolewski said. “We’ve got to be better than that. No matter what the circumstances are, we have to be ready to play. ... That’s like a typical Bunky team. He gets them up to play hard, and they find a way to be competitive and scrappy.”
Callie Bourne broke out of a scoring slump to tally 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists as Idaho State moved to 10-1 on the season and 8-0 in the Big Sky, two games ahead of the 6-2 Idaho women.
Unlike Thursday’s 69-57 win over Sac State, when ISU led by as many as 23 points and kept a comfortable double-digit margin for essentially the entire game, Saturday’s contest was anything but a formality between the Bengals and a Hornets team that came in winless in eight games to start the season.
ISU led 23-20 after the first quarter and 32-31 at halftime as Sac State, despite shooting just 34.4% in the opening 20 minutes, grabbed nine offensive rebounds to ISU’s three. It was a complete reversal of the first game, when ISU outrebounded the hosts 56-32.
The Hornets’ pressure also gave Idaho State fits throughout, slowing down the Bengals’ offense and forcing them to expend energy just to get the ball past halfcourt. For the game, Idaho State had 18 turnovers, including seven by point guard Diaba Konate.
“We don’t try to make huge corrections during the game. That will come later, in film sessions,” Sobolewski said about Konate, who had four steals of her own. “It’s focusing on positivity, focusing on the next play. Don’t focus on the mistake you just made, focus on the next play. You’re going to live and die by some of those mistakes sometimes, and it’s part of the learning process with her.”
Idaho State closed a back-and-forth third quarter on a 12-0 run and appeared to be in control, pushing the run to 22-3 and the lead to 63-48 early in the fourth quarter.
That’s when the other part of Sac State’s identity showed up, as the Hornets hit four 3-pointers — including three in a row by Sarah Abney — in two-and-a-half minutes, going on a 15-0 run to knot the game at 63-63 with 3:52 to play.
Bourne answered with a layup, but another Sac State 3-ball gave the hosts the lead at 66-65 with 3:02 to go.
“We didn’t do a good job of staying on people,” Sobolewski said. “They put us in the scramble too much. ... They lead the conference in 3-pointers made and attempted, so that’s their game. If they get some of those shots to go down, it can add up really quick.”
In the end, though, ISU’s experience and proven playmakers won out, as layups by Estefania Ors and Dora Goles, plus two free throws by Konate, made up a quick 6-0 run that gave Idaho State a five-point lead with just over a minute to play, putting the Bengals on the free-throw line and giving them a chance to build the final margin over the final 60 seconds.
As Sacramento State relied on the 3-ball to get back in the game, Idaho State doubled down on attacking the basket with things got tight.
Every one of the Bengals’ 24 fourth-quarter points were scored either in the paint or at the free-throw line, and ISU outscored Sac State 42-24 in the paint for the game.
Bourne, who had scored in double figures just once in her past five games, had 13 of her 21 points in the second half, playing every minute after halftime.
“Her energy level stepped up and she got aggressive, but I think she took good shots too,” Sobolewski said. “She didn’t take tough ones, she put herself in a position to get high-percentage shots. There’s a handful of games I can already remember this year where most of the group is struggling to get shots to go down, and here she hits a stepback off a ball screen or gets the ball to the basket. It’s like when everyone else isn’t playing their best, she does more.”
Goles added 15 points for the Bengals, while Konate and Delaney Moore each had 12.
Idaho State now hosts Portland State (4-4, 3-3) next Thursday and Saturday.
IDAHO STATE 77, SACRAMENTO STATE 70
Idaho State 23 9 21 24 — 77
Sacramento State 20 11 14 25 — 70
Idaho State — Bourne 21, Goles 15, Konate 12, Moore 12, Ors 9, Oltrogge 5, Smith 3.
Sacramento State — Abney 17, Johnson 12, Menke 11, Olivares 10, Rios 8, Enochs 5, Carrasco 5, Wilson 2.