FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Sophomore guard Rubi Gray posted her first career double-double with a career-high tying 26 points and 11 rebounds, while Benthe Versteeg and Natalie Picton also finished in double figures, helping lead Sacramento State to its third-straight victory with a 78-59 win at Northern Arizona on Thursday night in Flagstaff, Ariz.
The Hornets moved above the .500 mark with their ninth victory of the year, improving to 9-8 overall and 3-1 in Big Sky Conference play. The triumph gave Sacramento State its third, three-game winning streak of the season, while the three-straight wins in Big Sky play is the longest such streak since Feb. 8-15, 2024.
In winning three of their first four league games, the Hornets are off to their best conference start since they began the 2022-23 Big Sky campaign with four straight wins. Meanwhile, Sacramento State snapped a four-game skid in the series with the Lumberjacks, winning for only the ninth time in 31 chances in Flagstaff.
Led by a team-high 17 points from Naomi White, Northern Arizona fell to 6-12 overall and 2-3 in conference.
Gray's 26-point outburst matched her career high set against Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 21, nabbing her fourth 20-point performance of the year while setting new career marks for rebounds and three-pointers made (six). Her 10 field goals for the game fell just one shy of her career high in the category.
She was joined in double figured by Versteeg, who tied her season highs with 18 points and eight field goals while narrowly missing out on her third double-double of the year, finishing with nine rebounds to go with four assists. She needs only 14 more points to reach 1,000 for her career while her four helpers on Thursday moved her into a tie for 10th on the Big Sky career list for assists with 534, matching Portland State's Kylie Jimenez (2017-21).
Picton completed the double-digit trio, adding 14 points for her 12th double-digit scoring performance of the year — and her third straight — while adding five rebounds, three assists, and swiping four balls to log her 14th game this season with multiple steals.
Freshman Jaety Mandaquit added a career-high six assists to go with three points and four rebounds, while Elizabeth Abiara added seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.
Following a slow start that saw both teams struggle to find their shooting rhythm, the Hornets erased a four-point deficit with a 6-0 run that gave them their first lead of the night at 11-9 with 1:03 to play. The Lumberjacks drained a three-pointer just before the first quarter buzzer to regain the lead, but the advantage would be short-lived.
Sacramento State opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run over the first 94 seconds of the period, building a nine-point lead that it would not relinquish. Northern Arizona got no closer than six points on its next possession following the run, but another burst — this a 12-3 run by the Hornets over the next four minutes — gave them a 15-point lead with 3:05 remaining and they never looked back.
A 13-point lead at halftime ballooned to as many as 20 points on a couple of occasions late in the third quarter and Sacramento State never allowed NAU to get closer than 13 points the rest of the way.
The hot-shooting Hornets hit just over 49 percent from the field for the game and finished with a season-high 11 makes from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, the defense was stout, holding the Lumberjacks to just under 35 percent for the game, 27 percent from three-point range overall, and outrebounding the host side by a 49-24 count.
Sacramento State looks for a sweep of the road trip on Saturday (Jan. 17) at 1 p.m., traveling to Greeley, Colo., to take on Northern Colorado. The Bears improved to 4-1 in Big Sky play on Thursday with an 80-60 win at home over Portland State.
