SACRAMENTO -- Senior guard Kahlaijah Dean finished with a game-high 27 points to lead three Hornets in double figures and the Sacramento State women's basketball team bounced back with a 66-52 Big Sky Conference victory over visiting Idaho State on Thursday night at The Nest.
The win improved the Hornets to 14-3 overall and 5-1 in league play, matching their win total from all of last season when they finished 14-16 overall on the year. Sacramento State also won its sixth straight at home, improving to 6-1 at The Nest this season and posting its longest winning streak at home since the Hornets won six straight from Nov. 20-Jan. 24 during the 2014-15 campaign.
Led by an 18-point, 12-rebound double-double from Laura Bello, the Bengals suffered their third straight defeat, falling to 8-9 overall and 3-3 in conference play.
Entering the night as one of only two players in the Big Sky averaging better than 20 points per game, Dean posted her eighth game with at least 20 points this season — and her fourth in her last five outings — finishing 8-of-16 from the floor with a quartet of three-pointers and a perfect 7-of-7 from the line. She added four rebounds, five assists, and three steals to her stat line.
Senior Kaylin Randhawa finished with 12 points on 4-of-9 from the floor, while senior Solape Amusan, who was making her first career start as a Hornet, finished with a Sacramento State career-high 11 points, six rebounds, and a pair of blocked shots.
Eleven of Dean's 27 points came in the opening quarter to get the Hornets off to a quick start as Sacramento State built a 10-point lead with just under four minutes to go in the period and ballooned that advantage to 13 points on three free throws by Amusan at the end of the quarter for a 25-12 lead.
That lead grew to as many as 16 points in the second quarter thanks to a 9-2 burst midway through the period en route to a 37-25 advantage at the break and the Hornets led by that many midway through the third thanks to a three by Amusan and a three-point play from Dean after Idaho State had cut the deficit down to 10 points.
The Bengals never got closer than nine points the rest of the way after Carsyn Boswell opened the fourth with a three-pointer, but a basket inside for an "and one" by Randhawa and another inside by Isnelle Natabou pushed the lead back to 14 points and the Hornets never looked back.
Sacramento State shot 38 percent from the field to Idaho State's 37 percent, but the Hornets drained 10 three-pointers and sank 14-of-15 from the line en route to the win.
The brief home stand concludes on Saturday (Jan. 21), as Sacramento State welcomes Weber State to The Nest for a 1 p.m. tip-off. The Wildcats lost a heartbreaker, 65-64, on the road at Portland State on Thursday, falling to 4-13 overall and 0-5 in conference play.
