Women's Box Score

At Kezar Pavilion on Saturday evening, the Academy of Art University Urban Knights faced the Cal State East Bay Pioneers in a basketball double-header that saw victory for the AAU women, toppling the Pioneers 90-86, while the men's team suffered a 93-75 defeat.  The Lady Urban Knights improve to 3-15 overall and the men fall to 3-16.

The Lady Urban Knights have had a roller coaster season thus far, but their recent victories, including last night's hard-fought battle against a strong shooting Pioneer team, showed just how far the women have come since their inaugural game against William Jessup University.  AAU started out strong and took an early lead that they would not surrender all evening, despite valiant efforts by the Pioneers to thwart victory for the Urban Knights.

Five AAU players posted double figures, led by junior guard Caprice Hall with 19 points.  Hall's 19 points were a career-high and replace her previous record of 16.  Captain and junior point guard Sondra Stilwell finished with 17, while freshman point guard Lorraine Etchell and senior forward Levalasi Key were close behind with 14 each.  Key's rebounding efforts solidified the win for Urban Knights and she led the team with eight total boards.  Senior guard Ali Tyson-Taufoou ended the night with 10 points and seven rebounds.  Etchell's 14 points tied her career-high for the fourth time, while her defensive effort on the floor saw Etchell reach a career-high in rebounds, as well, with seven.

Despite their lack of size, the Pioneers displayed a solid effort against the Knights and were hot from the 3-point line all night.  Junior guard Morgan Hunter posted 19 points and went 4-of-7 from the 3-point line, while senior guard Amy Elliott posted 17 points and hit five threes out of 11 attempts.

Always the consummate leader, Stilwell led the charge against the Pioneers with seven rebounds and a career-high nine assists.  Injuries left the Urban Knights with only two subs all night, and foul trouble threatened imminent victory and left the Knights with only one sub for the last six minutes of the game after Key fouled out.  But the Knights were seemingly unfazed and pulled off their third win of the season. 

On the Men's side, the AAU men faced their first defeat in 2009 with the loss to CSEB.  The Pioneers took an early lead and emotions ran high as their head coach got an early technical foul after loudly disagreeing with the refs less than two minutes into the game.  CSEB was hard to top as they had a stellar performance from the 3-point line, connecting on 10 of their 26 3-point attempts. 

Injuries left the Urban Knights with only two subs to face the Pioneers, and then foul trouble left the Knights with no subs as the night's key players, sophomore point guard Weleh Dennis and Lorenzo Dobson, each fouled out.  Dennis posted 17 points and led the team in assists with five.  Dobson bested his career-high 10 points, tallying 17 points for the night, and led the team with 8 rebounds. 

Sophomore guard Phillip Samuel displayed solid defense throughout the night and grabbed six rebounds for his team, but his defensive effort would not be enough to secure the win. 

Freshman center Sebastian Vos recorded his first points of the season, ending the night with three points. 

Next up for the Lady Urban Knights is a rematch with Simpson University in Redding on January 19, 2009.  After that, both teams travel to Hawaii on January 22^nd where they will face Pac West Conference members Chaminade University, BYU-Hawaii and University of Hawaii Hilo.