SACRAMENTO -- Junior Isnelle Natabou finished with 19 points and 20 rebounds to lead a trio of Hornets in double figures, but visiting UC Irvine erased a 16-point second-half deficit, draining the game-winner with less than a second to play for a 60-58 victory over Sacramento State on Saturday afternoon.
Natabou, who hit 9-of-12 from the field with six offensive rebounds, was joined in double figures by senior Kahlaijah Dean, who finished with 14 points and six assists, while sophomore Katie Peneueta added 12 points on a quartet of three-pointers to go along with a career-high eight rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
The double-double was the 16th of Natabou's career and her first since scoring 15 points and grabbing 14 rebounds at Southern Utah back on Feb. 12 of last season — which was the last in a run of 10 consecutive double-doubles for the native of the Czech Republic -- and was the seventh consecutive game in double-digits for Natabou when you include the final six games of the 2021-22 campaign. Her 20 rebounds were the most since she had 22 against Idaho in an overtime contest on Jan. 22 of last year and marked her third career game with 20-or-more rebounds.
Dean, one of six Sacramento State players who made their debut in the green and gold on Saturday, and fellow newcomer Kaylin Randhawa combined for 11 of the team's 14 assists, while the two were joined by freshman Madison Butcher, redshirt freshman Benthe Versteeg, and junior Erin Hedman, who all scored their first career points for the Hornets.
Building a 14-point, 38-24, lead at the break, the Hornets extended their advantage to 16 with the first basket of the second half inside by Natabou. The Anteaters used a 7-0 run midway through the period to cut the double-digit deficit in half and trailed by as few as six before a free throw by Natabou and a three-pointer by Butcher made it a 10-point game with 2:13 remaining in the third.
The two teams traded free throws to open the fourth and a basket inside by Natabou pushed Sacramento State's lead back to 11 points with just under eight to play, but UC Irvine continued to chip away as the Hornet offense struggled to find the basket. A 13-2 run over a five-minute span by the Anteaters capped by a Naomi Hunt jumper tied the game, and two free throws by Hunt with 34 seconds remaining gave UC Irvine its first lead since it led 3-2 just seconds into the contest.
With time running down, Dean came up clutch, draining a pull-up jumper from the free throw line and drawing a foul, sending her to the line with the chance to take the lead. Her free throw, however, was off the mark and the Anteaters called timeout to draw up one last play.
Out of the break, UC Irvine's Diaba Konate took the inbounds, cut to the middle and put up a fall-away jumper from just inside the free throw line that found the bottom of the net with 0.2 remaining to a 60-58 lead and the Hornets could not get a shot off in time.
Hunt led the Anteaters with 17 points, while Konate (16) and Nikki Tom (12) also finished in double figures. UC Irvine forced Sacramento State into 27 turnovers on the night, turning those into 26 points. The Hornets shot .479 from the floor to the Anteaters' .304, and limited the visitors to just 4-of-21 (.190) from beyond the arc for the contest.
Sacramento State hits the road for its first contest away from home in 2022-23 on Monday (Nov. 14), heading to the Bay Area to take on Santa Clara at 6 p.m.
