Lights Out on Black Out Night

Lady Jacks dominate against San Bernardino

There are nail biters in sports, and then there are blowouts. For the Humboldt State University women’s basketball team, Saturday was one of those blowouts where the Jacks found themselves on the right side of the scoresheet. Decked out in their black road uniforms for blackout night, the Jacks stormed their way to an early lead and never looked back as they took a convincing 107-62 win over the visiting San Bernardino Coyotes.

The Jacks were led in scoring by Alexia Thrower, who put up her eighth double-double of the season, putting up 26 points to go along with her 12 rebounds. Another standout performer for the Jacks was Sandin Kidder, who put up a double-double of her own with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Madeline Hatch and Gabrielle Carbajal also scored in the double digits along with Emily Packham, who had a career night with 11 points.

The Jacks established themselves quickly, finding reliable 3-point shots from up and down the roster. Hatch struck first from beyond the arc, setting the tone for the night as the senior guard went 5-12 on her 3-point shots. Carbajal put up three 3-point shots of her own while Kidder hit both of her two 3-point attempts.

Head Coach Michelle Bento-Jackson was very pleased with her team’s performance, pointing to the offense’s ability to keep driving the play with a lead.

“It’s great when the shots go in,” Bento-Jackson said. “But more importantly I really was focusing on the shot selection and making sure that we got good ball movement. Not just settling for an early shot against the zone.”

Even with such a scoring effort from her team, Bento-Jackson kept the team working hard through the full game.

“I know for the fans and everybody it just seems like 100 is the magic number,” Bento-Jackson said. “I don’t even know when we hit 100 tonight. I was just so focused on just making sure we were still doing what we needed to do.”

Carbajal was happy to see contributions from the whole team, saying that it made for a good experience out on the court.

“It was really nice being able to play with everyone,” Carbajal said. “And everyone contributing out there, and scoring and sharing the ball. It was just a great game.”

Carbajal was also confident that the team could use this game to push them forward going into their upcoming road trip to San Francisco and Sonoma.

“Just using this game as momentum and building confidence for the next game, especially San Francisco,” Carbajal said. “I know that we’ve been struggling on the road but just coming into this next game, we just have to have a different mindset.”

For the future, Bento-Jackson is focused on maintaining a high level of performance even when the team will play three out of their last four regular season games on the road as they aim for the California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament in March.

“We have three games here on the road and this is going down the stretch,” Bento-Jackson said. “Playing with that same type of energy when we’re not in front of our own fans. And as we say, it requires a lot of mental toughness to go on the road and to get a victory. And that’s something that we need to do for these next two weeks.”