Written by Athletic Communications Intern and track and field student-athlete: Corey Goodloe
Reaching 1,000-career points is not an easy feat, but there is no bigger and better surprise when a student-athlete eclipses that milestone as a Junior at the collegiate level. That's a rarity and Oakland junior guard Kahlaijah Dean falls in that discussion.
Dean became the 29th player in program history to reach 1000 career points as she scored 20 points in the fourth quarter en route to pouring in a new career-high 34 points (over half of Oakland's 64 points) on 10-of-24 (41.7%) shooting from the field, 4-for-9 (44.4%) from 3-point range and 10-of-11 (90.9%) from the free throw line while grabbing a game-high nine rebounds with three assists as Oakland battled but came up short at Milwaukee, 69-66. This performance follows Oakland women's basketball Alumna Taylor Jones, who accomplished this feat during the 2017-18 season.
Dean's first career points came against Central Michigan with 10 on Nov. 8, 2018 and she hit the 500 point mark with 11 points against Northern Kentucky on Jan. 23, 2020.
Such an accomplishment hardly ever comes with a scenario, that's usually the case when you're only focused on team success rather than individual accolades. Dean's reaction, after being told by Head Coach
Jeff Tungate that she reached 1000 points, reflects her selfless attitude.
"It's a very huge accomplishment," said Dean. "Once our coach made the announcement to me on the team bus, I was really shocked because I don't really expect any individual accolades or accomplishments. But, I was very excited and my teammates were excited for me, so it was a really great feeling."
Assuming a leadership role on the team, Dean recently earned Horizon League First Team honors marking the third consecutive year she has garnered All-League honors after being named Sixth Player of the Year and All-League Third Team last season and named to the All-Freshman Team during the 2018-19 season.
She also leads the team in scoring (17.3 ppg – 4th HL), rebounds (5.7 – 11th HL), assists (4.5 – 3rd HL) and steals (1.9 – 4th HL) and ranks second on the team in blocks (11) after posting a career-high three vs Purdue Fort Wayne (1/22) and eighth in the league in field goal percentage (39.6%).
However, she has never made it her goal to score as many points as possible. None of those stats matter to her as much as the bigger picture, which is winning.
"My only goal is just to win, really, and get as far as we can," added Dean. "Everything else just came to me, I guess, with the way that I play my game."
While in the midst of a pandemic, and COIVD-19 delaying the beginning of the season. Dean's leadership role has been put to the test as she worked hard to keep her teammates focused through such a frustrating and sporadic start to the season.
"It was a big challenge in the beginning. We had to sit out, get tested six-times a week, and we couldn't go anywhere," she said. "Being a college student, who wants to sit in the room all day? So I had to lead by example and make sure our teammates knew that we have a goal which is to win. And in order to play in our tournament, you had to play 12 games and people kept sitting out, so our goal was to make sure we could continue to play and take the necessary steps to not contract the virus and stay safe."
"We are now focused on winning, so we're willing to get tested six times a week, and foc
us on basketball and school and see how far it takes us."
Maintaining a healthy, consistent and successful season to achieve 1,000 points is not easy, and it's even less easy doing it all at the mercy of COVID-19, but Dean has met and exceeded all challenges in her way and her future, along with the team's, is very bright.
The next challenge for Dean and Oakland comes soon as the No. 4 seed Golden Grizzlies will host No. 5 seed and defending champion IUPUI in 2021 #HLWBB Championship Quarterfinal action at the O'rena on Tuesday, March 2 at 3 p.m.
