SACRAMENTO -- Senior guard Kahlaijah Dean tied her Sacramento State career high with 31 points and junior Isnelle Natabou finished with a 17-point, 18-rebound double-double on Saturday afternoon, helping lift the host Hornets to their second-straight victory, 70-44, over visiting Weber State at The Nest.
With the win, Sacramento State improved to 15-3 overall and 6-1 in Big Sky Conference play, already surpassing last season's win total with 11 regular season games remaining and posting the most wins in a single season since the 2014-15 squad won 18 games. Meanwhile, the six wins in seven league contests marks the Hornets' best conference start since that same 2014-15 team opened the Big Sky slate with a 7-1 record.
Saturday's triumph was Sacramento State's seventh straight win at home, improving the Hornets to 7-1 at The Nest this season. It is the longest home winning streak since they opened the 2013-14 season with an 8-0 record en route to an 11-1 start overall, while the seven home wins are the most since the 2014-15 squad finished 11-3 within the friendly confines.
Led by 20 points from Daryn Hickok, the Wildcats fell to 4-15 overall and remained winless in conference play at 0-7, losing their 12th consecutive road game dating back to last year. Hickok was the only Weber State player in double figures as second-leading scorer Jadyn Matthews (13.9 ppg and 8.4 rpg) was limited to just nine points and four rebounds.
Dean's 31 points matched her output in a win over Eastern Washington on Jan. 7, hitting 10-of-13 from the floor, 6-of-7 from beyond the arc, and 5-of-6 from the line. She added three rebounds, three assists, and three steals to her stat line as she collected her second 30-point performance as a Hornet, her ninth with at least 20 points this year (including five of her last six outings), and her ninth consecutive double-digit scoring performance.
The Bakersfield, Calif., native hit her first five shots of the day before her first miss and scored 11 of her 31 in the fourth quarter alone, notching her 14th double-digit scoring quarter of the season out of the 17 by a Sacramento State player this year.
Meanwhile, Natabou rebounded — quite literally — in a big way after being held to a season-low six points against Idaho State on Thursday night, finishing with 17 points and grabbing 18 rebounds on Saturday against Weber State for her 10th double-double of the year, with nine of those 18 rebounds coming on the offensive glass. The 18 rebounds are her second-highest total of the season, trailing only her 20 boards against UC Irvine in the season opener.
Senior Solape Amusan finished with eight points, Jordan Olivares added six more, Kaylin Randhawa ended the day with five points, and Madison Butcher chipped in three to round-out the scoring for Sacramento State.
While the offense reached the 70-point plateau as a team for the seventh time this year and shot 49 percent from the floor overall, the defense played a huge part in the victory, limiting the Wildcats to just 28 percent from the field — the second-lowest single-game field goal percentage by an opponent behind only the .278 shot by UC Davis on Nov. 22, and the third time an opponent has shot lower than 30 percent from the field this season.
Sacramento State never trailed en route to victory for the second straight game, scoring the first five points of the afternoon before using a 9-0 run to turn a one-point advantage into a 10-point lead midway through the first quarter.
Weber State never got closer than four points the rest of the way, clawing back to within 16-12 with 9:12 remaining in the second quarter before back-to-back three-pointers by Dean sparked a 10-3 burst that made it an 11-point lead. Hickok then hit back-to-back jumpers to make it a seven-point game, but the Hornets scored eight of the final nine points in the half en route to a 34-20 advantage at the break.
The lead grew to as many as 16 points in the third quarter before turning up the heat in the fourth quarter, shooting 53 percent in the period and growing the lead to 20 points on a pair of occasions before closing the game on a 10-1 run for the final 26-point advantage.
Sacramento State shot better than 50 percent in three of the four quarters on the day, including a 64 percent clip in the second quarter, while the defense held Weber State to under 37 percent in all four quarters, including just 1-for-9 (.111) in the third and 5-for-22 in the second half.
The Hornets embark on their longest road stretch of the season beginning next week, opening a run of four straight games away from home in the "Treasure State" with contests at Montana (Jan. 26) and Montana State (Jan. 28).
IN THE BONUS: Saturday's win snapped a five-game losing skid against Weber State and was Sacramento State's 11th win in the last 13 meetings between the two at The Nest… The Hornets' 15 wins are four shy of the school single-season record for wins shared by the 1990-91 (19-7) and 2012-13 (19-12) squads… Saturday marked the 10th time this year that an opponent has been held to under 40 percent from the field… Dean's five free throws gave her 92 for the year, moving her to within 20 of Shelby Boudreaux and 10th on the all-time list, and just 14 away from Julie Wastell and 10th on the program's Division I single-season list… Natabou's 18 rebounds pushed her past 500 for her career with 517, moving her to within 53 of Linda Simmons and 10th on the all-time career list, and just 12 shy of Emily Christensen and 10th on the program's Division I career chart.
