Box Score

Honolulu, HI -- After Wednesday night's game against Chaminade, there is one thing that cannot be denied about the Academy of Art men's basketball team: these guys can score. By way of an impressive 19-0 run early in the second half, ART U went from down by nine to up by 10, but unfortunately for the Urban Knights, even the best offensive performances can be thwarted late. Such was the case at McCabe Gymnasium when the Chaminade Silverswords rallied back in second half to take down the Knights 89-83.

"I thought we played with really good intensity and effort this evening," head coach Mark Sembrowich said. "And it was never more evident than in that second half when we really came out and I think our run was about our ability to get stops which infused our offense. The guys really played well and we seemed to hit a lull offensively later in the game. [Chaminade] kept coming and they certainly earned it, but I thought our guys stepped up and gave tremendous effort this evening."

The Knights (2-12, 0-4 PWC), led by William Overton, Jr. who had 26 points and six rebounds, have continued to show off their ability to score against top teams in the PacWest, topping Chaminade's average points allowed (75.2) by almost ten points. Academy of Art had three players in double digits, as Ameer Shamsud-din (16 points) and Czar Robotham (14 points) also broke the barrier.

ART U has also shown themselves to be a great second-half team, displaying that once again in the matchup with the Swords, at one point outscoring the home team 19-0 in the second half before Chaminade (5-5, 3-0 PWC) stormed back to recapture the lead. But the Knights put together another balanced game, scoring 40 points in the first half and 43 in the second.

"At that point [during the run], the message was it wasn't broke so don't try to fix it," Coach Sembrowich said. "We had tremendous energy at that point and we were getting stops so I think we had them flustered a little bit. We were getting them to turn it over some and it just made a difference because we were just able to impose our will on them for that stretch. But we need to be able to close out. We got closer, but we were unable to close them out and that's really important. That's something we need to keep trying to learn as we go."

The Urban Knights and the Silverswords played very evenly in the stat categories, with the teams virtually tied in almost every aspect of the box score. Chaminade narrowly had the advantage in the field goal margin (27-25), free throws (28-27), and rebounds (37-31), while Academy of Art won the turnover battle (15-13) and had more steals (9-5) and a better free throw percentage (84-67). However, it's the final tally that matters, and the Urban Knights came up just short.

Chaminade was paced by Matt Cousins, who had 20 points and six rebounds, and was closely followed by Lee Bailey, who dropped 19 points in 38 minutes. Cousins and Bailey combined to make 15-of-24 from the free throw line. Rickey Clayborn (13pts), Darko Vukasovic (12pts), and Waly Coulibaly (11pts) also broke into double figures for the Silverswords.

"I think you have to say Cousins is the best post player in our league and I don't want to take anything away from Luke Evans [of Cal Baptist], but Cousins' physicality and his explosiveness is just a little bit different," Coach Sembrowich said. "He came out to start by hitting that three in the corner and I was like 'Holy smokes!' But we battled with him pretty hard and he's a good player. They got the better of the battle tonight, but fortunately we have a chance to play them again and that time it'll be at Kezar."

The Knights have been frustratingly close to knocking off the top contenders in the PacWest Conference, nearly overcoming undefeated Chaminade on Wednesday and being narrowly edged by first-place Cal Baptist in overtime last week. They'll have another crack at an undefeated team when they take on BYU-Hawaii on Saturday.

"We're showing that talent-wise, we've got enough to hang in, but I just thought our effort tonight was much better than it was on Monday night," Coach Sembrowich said. "I thought the guys really exerted themselves and we left everything we had on the floor. I thought we rallied in the second half Monday night, but we really didn't come close to the same kind of effort for an entire game that we had this evening."