Tuesday

February 10, 1998

Hornets victorious over Vikings, Eagles

By Scott Drenik
HORNET STAFF WRITER

Sacramento State women's basketball team came out fired-up on defense against a Portland State team Thursday night at Memorial Auditorium, defeating the Vikings 65-63.

The Hornets swiped the ball from Portland State 18 times while putting on a defensive clinic in the first half.

"We tried to key in on our defense," said Hornet head coach Sue Huffman. "If we can hold teams to their average, our offensive average should win games."

Maria Lara, who averages 6.2 points a game, led the Hornets with 21 points and nine rebounds in 29 minutes of play. Lara leads the Big Sky Conference with 2.3 steals per game.

Julie Wastell, Sac State's only member of the Big Sky All-Conference Team, had four steals and four assists to go with her 16 points. The Hornets' leading rebounder, Lindsay Ball, came off the bench to score 13 for Sac State.

Early on, the Hornet guards swarmed the Vikings, bringing multiple fast-break opportunities for Lara, Wastell and Bear River High School phenom freshman Michelle St. Clair.

"We had been letting teams score 20 points over their average, and we needed to put a stop to it," said Huffman.

The Hornets stayed close to the Vikings in the first half despite 40- percent shooting from the field and shooting 1 of 9 from beyond the arc.

Portland State guard Monique Zampera had 11 assists, but was also one of four Vikings to have five or more turnovers in the game. Carrie Hawes led all Portland State scorers with 17, with Karrin Wilson and Elizabeth Zinky both scoring 10 points.

The Eagles looked flat on their feet all game long, and with five minutes left on the clock the Hornets had a 10-point lead.

Portland State went to a full-court pressure defense with 4:30 left and whittled Sac State's lead down to three with 13 seconds left. PSU's Zampera was intentionally fouled by Wastell with seven seconds to go to force a free-throw situation. This eliminated a three-point play and the tie needed to send the game into overtime.

Zampera, who recently broke into the Portland State starting lineup, made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second, but the Hornets snagged the rebound and ran out the clock, sealing the victory.

The first half of the women's basketball game against Eastern Washington (4-17, 2-9) was punctuated by repeated blasts from the referee's whistle. Despite multiple trips to the foul line by EWU, Sacramento State (6-13, 3-7) came away with its second victory in a two-game home stand, winning 70-65.

The Hornets again came out hustling on defense, forcing 32 turnovers in the game. Sac State's fast break had the Eagles hacking up a storm, totaling 24 personal fouls. In the first half, the Hornets went 15 of 17 from the stripe.

Eastern Washington's leading scorer, Courtney Horner, came out on fire with 18 points on 4 of 7 from three-point land and 6 of 7 from the line in the first half. Eagle forward Tracy Ford had 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Eastern Washington's bench had 12 turnovers and only scored two points for the game. The Hornet bench came up big with 30 points and seven steals, helping Sac State to a whopping 37-7 points-off-turnovers ratio over the Eagles.

Kristin Niemann, the Hornets second leading scorer, had a team-high 19 points, and St. Clair came off the bench to score a career-high 18 on 3 of 5 three-point shooting. "The bench was great; Michelle came out and hit some key three-pointers and we were controlling the rebounding at the end," said Huffman.

Sac State's big gun, Julie Wastell, was uncharacteristically silent on the offensive end of the floor, but she held Eastern Washington's Horner to her game-high 21 points, only three of which came in the second half.

"I told Julie that I didn't care what she did, I didn't want her to leave Horner," Huffman said. "She shut her down."

The Hornets hope to continue their winning streak when they travel to the University of Montana on Thursday. They will return home on Feb. 14 for a four-game home stand before finishing the season at Northern Arizona.

No salvation for Trinity

By Brad Williams
HORNET SPORTS EDITOR

The hardest-working athletes at Sacramento State, in search of a worthy opponent, brought in a team from across the border to battle for the bragging rights to North America.

Last Friday, the CSUS men's volleyball club defeated Trinity Western University from British Columbia, Canada (15-8, 8-15, 15-11, 15-3). But the Spartans of TWU proved to be quite a match for the Hornets.

After having defeated their rival Cal on Wednesday, the Hornets had some problems getting fired up for a match against an unfamiliar opponent.

"Trinity we've never played before," outside hitter Ed Jackson said. "We really didn't know what to expect."

Jackson is playing his fifth season with the club. Against Trinity he accounted for 23 kills and 12 digs.

Trinity kept it close in games one and three, and won game two convincingly. However, down by five points in game three, the Hornets adapted to the Canadians' playing style and returned to CSUS' championship form, winning the game 15-11.

"We were matched evenly," the Hornets' Norm Silliman said. "It took us awhile to get the hang of them."

Silliman, also an outside hitter, scored a team-high 24 kills.

In game four, Sac State shifted into overdrive and pulled out to an 8-0 lead. After that, the Hornets never looked back, blowing Trinity away 15-3.

Part of the reason for the Hornets' surge in game three and their dominance in game four was Travis Wilson. Wilson, who was not as effective in the first two games, came on strong in the game four and shut down the middle. Wilson attributed his slow start to a sore knee, and said he and the setter were not in sync the first three games. On the night, Wilson recorded eight blocks; six of them were solo.

Another player who came up big down the stretch was outside hitter Troy Bowman, who had 19 kills and 12 digs for the match.

Friday's match against the guests from north of the border almost didn't take place.

When club president David Profit showed up at the North Gym, there weren't any bleachers in it, so Profit and some other team members had to drag in the portable bleachers from the soccer field.

Because of the rain, the bleachers were muddy, so the team had to wash and towel them off before rolling them into the gym. This distraction might also explain the team's slow start in the earlier games.

Another type of distraction that affected both teams Friday night was the smaller size of the North Gym. Several times during the match the ball ricocheted off of the low ceiling, causing the team that hit it last lose possesion.

Profit said that the North Gym's ceiling was noticeably smaller and that players from Trinity were refering to the match as "wallyball."

In past years, the volleyball club competed with the men's and women's basketball teams for gym time. But, when basketball joined the Big Sky Conference, club members thought things would be different.

"We figured our priority would open up," Jackson said. "But now we're getting about as much gym time as we did back then."

Hornets can't hang on, lead slips away in OT

Sacramento State's men's basketball team traveled to Portland State and Eastern Washington this past week, shooting for its first-ever Big Sky Conference win. Instead, the team added two defeats to its record, losing 79-67 to Portland State and 75-73 to Eastern Washington.

"It was a good trip as far as us getting better," said Hornet head coach Tom Abatemarco. "But we just didn't get a victory. We played well enough in both games, though."

Starting Thursday night in Portland, the Hornets were unable to stop the scoring of Vikings forward Jason Hartman. Their 79-67 defeat occurred despite shooting 55 percent from the field.

Hartman's 38 points and eight rebounds helped keep the Vikings out of the reach of Sac State, which got within four points several times but couldn't grab the lead.

PSU's power forward scored eight points during a 12-2 run late in second half, burying the Hornets after they had cut the score to 52-48.

Forward Sean Houston led Sacramento with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while guard David Drakeford chipped in with 14 points.

Despite shooting almost 67 percent in the second half alone, the Hornets were outscored, mainly because Portland State shot 18 of 22 from the free-throw line, while Sac State only attempted four the entire game.

Traveling north to Cheney, Wash., Saturday night, the Hornets looked poised to get their first win on the road. They were in control most of the game, but Eastern Washington's Shannon Taylor nailed a three-pointer in the closing seconds of overtime to give the Eagles the lead and the 75-73 victory.

David Drakeford's free throw with 32 seconds left in the bonus period had previously put Sac State up 73- 71 before Taylor's heroics, but as happened all season, the young Hornets couldn't close out the game.

Sedessa Fisher led all scorers with 32 points in 33 minutes for CSUS, while Sean Houston had another strong game with 14 points and 18 rebounds.

"Right now, Sean is playing well," Abatemarco said. "He is a big factor for us, but he fouled out before overtime and that hurt us."

Eastern Washington came at Sac State with a balanced attack. Shooting guard Deon Williams had 15 points, while his backcourt mate, Michael Lewis, added 14.

But it was Karim Scott who saved the day for the Eagles by hitting two clutch free throws with 33 seconds left, tying the game and sending it to overtime at 63-63.

"We probably played our best game of the year against Eastern Washington," Abatemarco said.

"We had several chances to win in regulation and in overtime, but Taylor hit that three after it looked like we had them in trouble."

Sac State (1-18) lost once again despite outshooting its opponent from the field -- 52 percent to the Eagles' 39 percent. The Hornets also outrebounded Eastern Washington 46-39, and for all intents and purposes, should have won the game.

The two losses extended Sac State's current losing streak to 11 games and moved its overall road streak to 23 losses in a row. The Hornets' last win on the road came in November 1996 at Northern Arizona.