Weber State’s defense couldn’t fix the problem.

When they played tight defense on Sacramento State’s Joseth Dawson, he used his quickness to draw a foul or breeze into the lane for a lay-up.

When they backed off of him, he wasn’t afraid to shoot, leading his team to a much needed 64-61 win over defending Big Sky Conference champions Weber State.

“I have been struggling behind the arc the whole year,” said Dawson, who had been shooting only 33 percent from 3-point land.

With just over one minute left in the game, Dawson was once again squaring up beyond the arc, and instead of the ball swishing through net like it had done the majority of the night, Dawson hit back iron.

The ball bounced straight into the air then plunged to hit the front of the rim, and although it must have seemed like an hour, the backspin finally guided Dawson’s fifth 3-pointer of the night through the basket for a 60-56 lead.

Dawson’s career high 32 points on 9 of 18 shooting led the Hornets to their first win ever over the Wildcats in 19 tries.

“I wanted to be the first coach in school history to beat them,” head coach Jerome Jenkins said. “It is a big win for me… it is a big win for the program. We stand up for the history of Sacramento State. So all those losses that we took to Weber State, it was about time to change history. I was proud of the guys and the program to get this win.”

After two disappointing losses on the road last week, Sac State is now 5-6 in conference play, tying the program’s record for conference wins in a season, with three remaining games left to build on.

Sac State is currently in a four-way tie for third place in the Big Sky, which sends its top six teams to the postseason.

“We had a sense of urgency,” Dawson said. “We needed to get it done before it was too late.”

Dawson had been the victim of two close losses to the Wildcats in the 2001-02 season and a 65-54 loss earlier this season in Ogden, Utah.

Known for their size, the Wildcats had previously given Sac State trouble on the inside — outrebounding and offensively being able to out-muscle whoever was under the basket. But Thursday night, Jenkins used speed and agility against height and muscle, and David finally brought down Goliath.

“We knew they were a whole lot bigger than us,” Jenkins said. “We knew we had to be even scrappier on the defensive end and DaShawn (Freeman), Joseth and James (Payne) kept getting their hands on balls and that is what we wanted… try to rattle them a little bit and get just enough of a lead to hold on.”

The Hornets forced the Wildcats into 12 turnovers while collecting nine steals — five in the second half.

“When we play defense there is no stopping us because teams get frustrated and we’re quicker than basically all the teams in the conference,” Dawson said. “When we get after it we create better chances on the offensive end.”

The Hornets were outmatched by the size of 6-foot-4 forward Nic Sparrow and 6-foot-10 center Lance Allred, who combined for 26 points and 18 rebounds.

But for every made Weber State basket, Sac State had an answer.

With Dawson, who is averaging 24.5 points per game in his last four games, and guard Brandon Guyton in the backcourt together, the Wildcats’ defense was forced to stop two shooters that were successfully hitting shots well beyond the 3-point line. If one was not shooting the three, the other tallied the assist. Although no other Hornet finished in double figures, Guyton hit three 3-pointers — finishing with nine points – while providing aggressive defense.

Jameel Pugh fell just short of a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds — five of which were on the offensive end.

“We knew this was a special team that could do some special things this season,” said Pugh, who had a one-handed slam in the second half after Freeman came up with a steal and assist.

“Guys on this team have really started to rally around each other and get things done. We are feeling pretty confident that we can go out and beat any team. These are goals that we set in the preseason when we were running the track and pushing ourselves to prepare for these teams. Luck favors the prepared man and we were more prepared tonight.”

Sac State started the game slow offensively and was down 23-13 before Guyton and Dawson combined for three 3-pointers in the final minutes to close the gap to 28-24 at halftime.

“I told the guys calm down, just calm down,” Jenkins said. “I know we lost two games. I know this is a big game. I know we put a lot on it – just calm down and that’s what they did.”

Sac State will face Idaho State (8-17, 5-6), at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday. The Bengals are coming into the Hornets Nest on a three-game losing streak.

The Hornets will also honor seniors Cedric Thompkins, Joel Jones, Tony Champion, Djibril Diop, Guyton and Dawson in a ceremony prior to the game.