Box Score

San Francisco, CA --- The Urban Knights dropped a tough match to #12 Grand Canyon University tonight at San Francisco State University. After 40 minutes of basketball the Academy of Art women's basketball team could not overcome the shooting prowess of Samantha Murphy, the leading scorer in the PacWest, and fell to 2-4 and 4-11 overall with the 49-66 loss. The win keeps Grand Canyon among the top teams in the nation with an impressive 14-2 record and a 2-1 record in the conference.

The ART U women should be very proud of their efforts tonight. The Urban Knights withstood a tough loss earlier in the week and bounced back to go head-to-head with such an accomplished team. “We should be proud of how we bounced back from a tough loss to Dixie, and then turned around and competed with the #12 team in the Nation,” said Yamasaki.

A true testament to the Urban Knight defense tonight was the fact that the Urban Knights kept the Antelopes scoring under 70 points, a feat only one other losing team has done this season. Grand Canyon, as a whole, is averaging 78.4 points per game. “It feels good to know you flustered such a strong offensive team. I am proud of my girls effort tonight,” Yamasaki said.

ART U showed tremendous heart through the first half of the contest. As Yamasaki and her ball club strayed from the usual line-up and started some fresh faces tonight. Michelle Koike was a spark for the Urban Knights early on grabbing some crucial rebounds, and finishing with five of her seven rebounds in the first half alone.

At the start of the contest ART U played hard, aggressive defense, and did not allow the Lopes to score a field goal through the first four minutes of the game. After the Urban Knights tied and regained the lead 8-6, the Antelopes unleashed a 20-5 run on ART U that put GCU up by 11 points, 16-27, with five minutes remaining in the half.

Thanks in large part to Nicole DeRosier and Jessica Nolan down the stretch ART U answered back with a 12-4 run of their own to close the gap and go into halftime down by just three points, 28-31.

In the first half the Urban Knights shot 40% from the field, 50% from three point territory, and 80% from the free-throw line. While Grand Canyon finished the half shooting 33% from the field, 30% from three-point land, and 67% from the line.

Defense was the name of the game at the start of the second half. No team registered a point on the scoreboard until three minutes into the half, when DeRosier knocked down two free-throws which brought ART U to within one point of #12 Grand Canyon University. Back-to-back three's by GCU's Murphy sparked a 17-2 run and gave the Lopes their largest lead of the game, 32-48. Despite going 10+ minutes without a field goal, a Jessica Nolan lay-up at the 9:49 mark put the Urban Knights down by a mere 13 points, 35-48. Alisa Griggs would convert a three point play to bring the Urban Knights to within 10 points on the next play down the court. Unfortunately, that would be as close as ART U would get as Grand Canyon cruised to the 49-66 win.

For Grand Canyon Samantha Murphy finished with a game high 25 points. Stevie Camp chipped in with 12 points.

ART U was led by Nicole DeRosier, who finished with 14 points and was 4-9 from long range. Jessica Nolan was right behind her with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Jasmine English added seven points in the loss, while Michelle Koike grabbed a season high seven rebounds.

Up Next for the Urban Knights is a rematch against the University of Hawaii-Hilo on Tuesday Jan 25 at Kezar Pavilion. Tip off is set for 7:30 PM.