San Rafael, CA -- The Academy of Art men's basketball team played 40 minutes of high-efficiency basketball, but the Penguins of Dominican shot 68.0% from the field to send the Urban Knights home on the losing end of an 82-68 battle. Point guard Czar Robotham was 7-for-8 from the field and scored 22 points, and Ameer Shamsud-din came on strong in the second half to finish with 19 points, but the Penguins' hot shooting nullified those performances by the Knights.

"We played a really efficient game offensively," said head coach Mark Sembrowich. "The game we played offensively should have been enough to win. But you have to play defense and get stops, and we didn't get stops when we needed them."

The Urban Knights played a solid first half, but a cold spell right at the end led to a halftime deficit. The two teams traded baskets early, with a free-throw by Robotham bringing the Knights within one at 26-25 with 6:47 to go, but Dominican went on a 17-9 run for the rest of the half to go into the break up by nine. 

For the Penguins, it was a matter of not missing, as they shot 79.2% from the field in the first half to head into the break 43-34. Jacob Noisat, who finished the game with 24 points and 8 rebounds, had 19 points and five rebounds in the first half to lead the way for the Penguins. Jammall Clark added 16 points on a 7-for-9 effort, and Ricky Wofford added 13 points on a 6-for-7 night.

"We made the adjustment on Noisat in the second half," Sembrowich said. "But you have to work really hard to beat 68 percent. We just needed to defend better." 

Robotham and WIlliam Overton, Jr. came out of the locker room on fire, as the two combined to make the first five shots for the Knights out of the break, four of them from beyond the arc. The team as a whole shot 50.0% for the game, as those two combined for an 11-for-14, 34-point performance. The teams were evenly matched aside from the shooting, as neither team dominated the boards or the turnover battle.

"The game was pretty even otherwise, if you look at the stats," Sembrowich said. "We had guys shoot the basket well and get to the bucket. Things just didn't go our way."

The Knights brought it within one point on the three-point play by Shamsud-din with just over eight minutes left in the game, and closed to within a point again at 62-61 with 7:01 to go. But Dominican then went on a 9-0 run, with a Xander McNally lay-in putting the home team up 71-61. The Penguins took control and held the Knights to only nine points over the rest of the game to hold down their home court for their fourth win in a row.

ART U will hit the road to play Dixie State and then Grand Canyon before coming back to San Francisco for their final homestand of the year.