Photo Gallery (images by Meg Williams)

San Francisco, CA -- For the Urban Knights, Monday's loss to Dominican was a tough pill to swallow. It was another solid performance at Kezar Pavilion, with four players getting in double-digits for scoring on the offensive end. On defense, the Knights didn't allow any Penguins to score more than 15 points. But Academy of Art was unable to make that final push and take the lead as they fell to their rivals across the Golden Gate, 67-61.

"I think we can do a better job and I think we have done a better job," said head coach Mark Sembrowich. "We turn around and play these guys in a week."

The Knights faced an eight-point deficit early on but countered with a 13-2 run over the next four minutes, capped off by a layup by William Overton, Jr. which put the home team up 19-16 with 9:18 left in the first half. They maintained that pace for a while, but the Penguins sandwiched a 10-2 run around halftime to take a lead that they wouldn't relinquish for the duration of the game.

"It was a game of runs in the first half," Sembrowich said. "Both teams settled down in the second half a little bit. We had some chances down the stretch, but we just didn't get the ball in the basket."

That run was dampened when Ivan "B.J." Prema, Jr. tied the ART U record for career 3-pointers, as he made with his 63rd trey in an Urban Knight uniform with 18:05 left in the second half. Prema, Jr. is now tied with Weleh Dennis for the program lead in that category. Prema, Jr. finished his night with 10 points and five rebounds.

"I thought Prema played very well tonight," Sembrowich said. "He continues to improve and he's bringing us a lot of good energy. Hunter (Hayden) gave us some good minutes off the bench, as did Aaron Anderson. The whole team is contributing."

Aaron Anderson continued his impressive freshman campaign for the Urban Knights, going on a 6-0 run by himself to keep the Knights within striking distance. The San Francisco native had 10 points on a 3-for-4 shooting night where he also was 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Anderson has seen his production, and his minutes, rise since the start of the PacWest season, where he has averaged 7.0 points per contest.

The Knights couldn't withstand a late-game charge that was spearheaded by Ricky Wofford and Jacob Noisat. ART U cut the lead to one with 7:17 to go but Noisat, the forward from Santa Rosa, scored six straight points for the Penguins. Wofford followed that effort up with seven straight for Dominican to make it a 10-point margin with 2:22 to go. As time ran down, the Knights were able to get within four points, but couldn't break through against the visiting team.

"I think we need to put this game behind us and get back to work," said Sembrowich. "We know we can play better than this and we're going to have to turn around and show that on Thursday."

The Urban Knights will make a mini-roadtrip to Belmont, CA to take on Notre Dame de Namur before facing off against Dominican again next Tuesday night in San Rafael.