Box Score

San Francisco, CA -- The Academy of Art men's basketball team returned home to Kezar Pavilion on Tuesday night after a five-game road trip that spanned almost three weeks away from their home floor. But Hawaii Pacific wasn't interested in providing a warm welcome as they came into San Francisco and used a strong shooting night to defeat the Urban Knights on their home floor 80-68.

The Knights had four players in double figures, including a big night from Czar Robotham, who broke a mini-slump to score 20 points and dish out three assists. William Overton, Jr. added 15 points and seven rebounds, and Ameer Shamsud-din used a strong night at the free-throw line to finish with 15 points and two steals. Ivan "B.J." Prema, Jr. also had 11 points and four rebounds in the loss.

Both teams made the same number of free-throws (23) and three-point shots (5), but the Sea Warriors were able to ride a big first half performance to victory. Fran Urli led all scorers with 22 points, and also had 11 rebounds for Hawaii Pacific, who shot 46.4% from the field to stay ahead throughout the night.

HPU jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead, making their first five shots from the field. They subsequently went cold, and the Knights crept back to within six after Shamsud-din completed a three-point play to make it 15-9 with just under 13 minutes left. The Knights continued to battle back, mostly from the line, but for every run that the Knights went on, Hawaii Pacific found a way to answer. Robotham made a jumper at 6:17 that cut the lead to three, but that was the closest they got in the first half. 

Going into the locker room, both teams had used big performances in a single dimension to comprise most of their points. The Knights scored 15 of their 30 first-half points from the free-throw line, with Shamsud-din and Robotham each going 6-for-7 from the charity stripe. The Sea Warriors got big production from Urli, who had 11 points and five rebounds at the break, four of them on the offensive glass as HPU won their third straight contest.

Overton came alive in the second half, scoring all of his 15 points after the break. But Urli added another 11 points and six rebounds in the second half and got help from Glenn Miller, who chipped in 11 points of his own to hold the Knights off. Academy of Art continue to battle, using a big four-point swing after a technical on Miller and the Sea Warriors to make it a seven point game with 9:11 to play. But HPU made their free-throws down the stretch, going 18 of 20 in the second half to seal the the deal.

The Knights will play on Thursday against Hawaii Hilo, and then on Saturday against Grand Canyon, before finishing up the season next week on Senior Day, March 3.