Box Score
Burnaby, British Columbia -- The Urban Knights fought off a pesky team from Simon Fraser again and again down the stretch, and breathed a big sigh of relief as they came away with their first win of the year on Saturday night. It was frigid 37 degrees for Academy of Art's first trip north of the border, but their shot stayed hot all night as they had their best game offensively of the year to put the Clan away and earn the victory.
"The big story tonight was that we were 33-of-54 from the floor," head coach Mark Sembrowich said. "That was a big factor. All you have to do is look at the numbers to see that shots from deep aren't our best chance to score. We were going to take shots that were good for us and make that happen."
The Urban Knights (1-8) shot the ball extremely well all game, finishing with a red-hot 61.1% mark from the field, and stayed away from their tendency to live outside the arc, shooting only seven times from three-point range. That resulted in a bevy of high-percentage shots for ART U, who ended with three players over 20 points for the first time in team history.
"This gives us a jumping-off point for the rest of the year," Coach Sembrowich said. "I think we knew that what we were doing was successful and we just needed to keep doing it. I'm really proud of the kids and how they played tonight. It felt really good."
Ameer Shamsud-din scored 22 points on a 7-for-11 night to lead all scorers, adding seven points from the free-throw line and a personal-best seven rebounds. Czar Robotham was right behind him with 20 points on a torrid 10-for-13 night, also adding three assists. And William Overton, Jr. added 20 points of his own in an all-around great game for the guard, who also had seven rebounds and five assists.
Free throws were key for the Urban Knights down the stretch, as they posted their first game of the year with more attempts from the stripe than their opponent. Overton made all of his six free throws within the last two minutes, including the dagger that sealed the deal with only four seconds left on the clock. Shamsud-din made three of four from the line in the final two minutes, and Hunter Hayden made two big free throws with 16 ticks on the clock to really make things difficult for the host Clan (4-5).
"The free throws were really big," Coach Sembrowich said. "Those ones by Hunter with less than 20 seconds to go especially. If you look at Hunter's numbers from a year ago, he's shown a lot of improvement at the line and I'm really glad that it paid off. Those were all really big shots."
One of the biggest aspects of the night was that Academy of Art accomplished this feat with only seven players making the trip up to Canada. Everyone got in the game and contributed, as freshman point guard Myles Babitt had five points in the first half and chipped in two assists and two rebounds, and senior Mike Jorritsma had three rebounds off the bench. All seven Urban Knights played double-digit minutes in the win as they were without forward Noah Koné-Nelson, guard Aaron Anderson, or guard Roget Romain on the trip.
"We only had seven guys make the trip, so it was a total team effort," Coach Sembrowich said. "Obviously everybody had to play and we had seven guys contribute. We really did a good job taking care of the ball tonight, and I think we did a good job of showing ourselves that if we play together and we take good shots, then we give ourselves a chance."
For the Knights, it was almost deja-vu as they played their third game of the year that went down to the final minute. On November 25th, the buzzer-beater from Overton rattled out and they lost to Fort Lewis 78-76. On December 3rd, they had another close game slip away in the final minute against Menlo, as they fell 72-67. But against SFU, the Urban Knights refused to let the home team take back what they had worked so hard to earn and will come back to San Francisco triumphant.
