BOISE, Idaho -- Put on your dancing shoes Sacramento, the Hornets are headed to the NCAA Tournament.
A season of firsts rolls on for the Sacramento State women's basketball program, which added another jewel to its crown in the "Gem State" on Wednesday, turning an early lead into a championship celebration by defeating top-seeded Northern Arizona, 76-63, in the title game of the Big Sky Conference Tournament at the Idaho Central Arena in Boise.
The Hornets followed up their share of the Big Sky regular season championship with three wins in three days, claiming their first-ever conference tournament trophy and NCAA berth in wire-to-wire fashion. Add to that the most wins in a single season in program history and a nine-game winning streak heading into "March Madness," and the list of accomplishments continues to grow.
Senior Kahlaijah Dean was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player — the first Hornet to earn that award — and was named to the all-tournament team, while junior Isnelle Natabou also garnered all-tournament honors. The two are only the fourth and fifth Hornets to earn a spot on the all-tournament team and the first time that the program has placed two on the all-tournament team in the history of the program.
The field for the 2023 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament will be announced on Sunday (March 12) at 5 p.m. PT on ESPN.
Led by a career-high 26 points and seven rebounds from senior guard Jordan Olivares, Sacramento State finished with three players in double figures to improve to 25-7 overall on the year and extend its winning streak to nine straight games. Olivares hit 9-of-15 from the field, including a trio of three-pointers, and added three assists to her stat line, topping her previous career high of 22 points against Weber State in 2021.
Her total was the third-highest by a Hornet in Big Sky Tournament play, trailing only Maranne Johnson's 31 points against Southern Utah in 2016 and Johnson's 30 against Montana in 2018.
Senior Kaylin Randhawa also saved her season best for the championship game, pouring in a Sacramento State career-high 20 points on 6-of-10 from the floor, adding four three-pointers and 4-of-5 from the line. The final total topped her previous Hornet best of 18 against the Lumberjacks on Feb. 9.
Dean narrowly missed out on a double-double, scoring 16 points and adding nine rebounds, but hit double figures for the 23rd consecutive game and the 31st time in 32 games overall.
Sacramento State needed only seven seconds to get on the scoreboard first with a three-pointer by Dean, sparking an 8-0 run to start the game — one that grew to 12-4 just four minutes later. Back-to-back three's by the Lumberjacks cut the lead to just two points, but that's as close as NAU would get in the period as the Hornets rebuilt the lead to eight on a pair of three-pointers of their own and led by four and the end of the quarter on Olivares' fall-away buzzer beater.
However, the second quarter was the difference. Sacramento State scored the first seven points of the period while holding Northern Arizona to without a point for the first 6:14 until Olivia Moran hit 1-of-2 from the line to end the drought. The shooting woes continued for the Lumberjacks as the Hornets held NAU to without a field goal in the period until Emily Rodabaugh drained a three-pointer with 45 seconds remaining, finishing 1-for-14 (.071) from the floor as Sacramento State held a commanding 37-22 lead at the break.
The Hornets' lead grew to as many as 20 points in the third on a three by Randhawa with 1:45 left in the period, but the Lumberjacks wouldn't go quietly, ending the third on a 7-0 run and making it a 10-point game a minute into the fourth before back-to-back baskets by Isnelle Natabou and Olivares stopped the bleeding.
Sacramento State remained calm and consistent, slowly rebuilding it advantage to 17 points at 67-50 with four minutes remaining, but the Lumberjacks had one more rally in them. Rodabaugh scored in the paint to help along an 11-3 burst for NAU to cut the deficit to nine points, but the Hornets kept the Lumberjacks at arms length, finishing 6-for-8 from the line in the final 77 seconds while holding Northern Arizona to just 1-for-5 from the floor to end the game and set off the confetti cannons.
Wednesday's 76 points for Sacramento State were the most in this year's tournament for the Hornets and the team's highest since scoring 80 against Montana in 2018. Shooting .455 from the field for the game, Sacramento State posted three of the program's top six field goal percentages at the tournament this year, including back-to-back record-setting performances against Idaho (.468) and Portland State (.469).
The Hornets also finished with 10 makes from beyond the arc — the fifth time in the team's last six games that they have finished with double figures in that category — while the 16 makes from the line are tied for the third-most in a tournament game in program history.
At the other end, Sacramento State's six blocks are the second-highest team total at the tournament in program history, trailing only the eight against NAU in 2019. Meanwhile, in holding the Lumberjacks to just .362 shooting from the field, it marked the fifth straight game — and the eighth time in the last nine games — that the Hornets have limited a team to under 40 percent from the field.
IN THE BONUS: The nine consecutive wins are tied for the third-longest winning streak in school history along with the 2013-14 squad, standing just one win shy of the record shared by the 1989-90 and 1990-91 squads… Wednesday's win was the first over Northern Arizona this year after the Lumberjacks swept the regular season series with a win in Flagstaff on Jan. 14 and in Sacramento in overtime on Feb. 9… With her 16 points, Dean now has 674 for the year, closing in on the top 10 for a single-season in Big Sky history… She also ranks among the top-10 on the school's single-season list for field goals made, three-pointers made, free throws made, and assists.
