MOSCOW, Idaho -- Senior Kahlaijah Dean flirted with a triple-double to lead a balanced scoring effort and a huge first half helped Sacramento State hang on, ending a three-game losing streak with a 77-70 victory over Idaho on Saturday afternoon at ICCU Arena in Moscow, Idaho.
The win pushed the Hornets to 16-6 overall and 7-4 in Big Sky Conference play, earning only its second win on Idaho's home floor in 12 total tries — and its first since Jan. 15, 2015, snapping a seven-game skid in Moscow. In addition, Saturday's win gave Sacramento State a sweep of the regular season series with the Vandals for the second time after back-to-back wins during the 2014-15 campaign.
Led by 24 points from leading scorer Beyonce Bea, Idaho fell to 9-14 overall and 5-7 in league, putting an end to its own three-game winning streak.
Dean finished with a team-high 19 points to go with 11 rebounds and six assists, ending the day with her second double-double as a Hornet after recording 12 points and 11 rebounds against UC Davis back on Nov. 22. The 11 rebounds against the Vandals tied her career high while she logged her 13th consecutive double-digit scoring game.
Shooting 6-of-13 from the field, including a trio of three-pointers, and 4-of-4 from the line, Dean extended her streak of consecutive makes from the line to 13 straight and giving her 116 makes on the season. Her 116 made free throws now rank eighth on the all-time list and sixth in the Division I era, just four behind Hannah Friend's 120 in 2018-19 on both charts.
The 19 points also pushed Dean into 10th place on the school's single-season points list in the Division I era with 474, passing Kylie Kuhns' 462 points in 2010-11 and trailing Kristy Ryan's 502 points in back-to-back seasons in 1991-92 and 1992-93. On the all-time list, Dean now trails Terri Lugert's 1990-91 total of 504 for 10th.
Senior Kaylin Randhawa came off the bench to add 13 points and three assists on 5-of-8 shooting from the field, while junior Isnelle Natabou added 12 points on a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor and 4-of-4 at the line, adding three rebounds to her stat line.
Now with 546 career boards, Natabou moved into a tie for seventh on the program's Division I era list, matching Atty Boyer (2005-09) and standing 27 shy of Shelby Boudreaux (1992-96) for sixth on that list.
Meanwhile, four other Hornet players finished with six-or-more points as Madison Butcher, Katie Peneueta, and Jordan Olivares added nine points each, while Solape Amusan chipped in six more on a pair of three-pointers. Olivares added seven rebounds — four on the offensive glass — while Peneueta corralled six boards, helping Sacramento State finish with a 38-29 rebounding advantage.
Sacramento State, which never trailed in the contest, wasted little time in jumping all over Idaho, scoring the first six points of the game and building a 20-point advantage with just over a minute to play in the first quarter — thanks, in large part, to a 15-0 burst late in the period — before settling for a 27-8 advantage at the end of the quarter. The Hornets shot 71 percent (10-for-14) in the opening 10 minutes while holding the Vandals to just 20 percent at the other end en route to the lead.
The lead grew to as many as 24 points in the second quarter despite "winning" the period by a single point, using a 9-0 run to grow a 15-point lead into a 41-17 advantage with 4:25 to play in the half. Idaho scored seven of the final 10 points in the quarter, but still trailed by 20 at the break, 44-24.
Sacramento State's lead ballooned back to 23 points at the 4:09 mark of the third before the Vandals turned up the pressure, scoring 11 of the final 13 points to nearly halve the Hornets' advantage, and made it a 16-5 run through the first 90 seconds of the fourth, making it 64-52 and forcing a Sacramento State timeout.
Butcher hit a jumper to stop the bleeding out of the break, but Idaho kept coming, scoring six straight from the line to claw to within single digits and making it a two possession game on back-to-back baskets by Brooke Malone and Bea with four minutes to play.
Randhawa gave her team a little breathing room with a basket inside, but Rosa Smith nailed a three-pointer and Bea added another jumper around a Natabou score to make it a three-point game, 70-67, with 1:31 to play.
Not panicking, Randhawa came up clutch once again after the Hornets got the ball back following an offensive foul, draining a three-pointer while being fouled and sinking the free throw to complete the four-point play and rebuilt the lead back to seven. Olivares then hit a free throw and Dean offset another three-pointer by Smith with two more makes from the line for the final tally.
Overall, Sacramento State hit 47 percent from the floor and finished with 11 three's on the day — it's fifth game with double-digit makes from beyond the arc in the last eight games. The Hornets' nine turnovers were just one off their season low of eight set at Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 21.
Sacramento State returns home for the first time in nearly three weeks with a pair of games at The Nest next week, hosting Northern Arizona on Thursday (Feb. 9) at 7 p.m., before welcoming Northern Colorado on Saturday (Feb. 11) at 2 p.m.
IN THE BONUS: With the win, Sacramento State needs only six more victories to reach 300 in its Division I history… The 16 wins this year are the most since the 2014-15 squad finished with 18, and are just three shy of the program's record of 19 shared by the 1990-91 (19-7) and 2012-13 (19-12) teams… The win on the road snapped a four-game losing streak away from The Nest and was the team's seventh road win of the year, matching last year's total with two more road games remaining in the regular season… With her 19 points on Saturday, Dean is just one shy of 1,900 for her collegiate career… Saturday's victory was the team's sixth wire-to-wire win of the year and its first since never trailing in back-to-back games against Idaho State and Weber State on Jan. 19 and Jan. 21, respectively… The 44-point first half against Idaho on Saturday was the eighth time that the Hornets have scored at least 40 points in any half this season and the fourth-highest single-half total of the year.
