Box Score
Photo Gallery (images by Hailey Archambault)

Hayward, CA – After jumping out to an early lead Saturday, ART U Women's Basketball had to fend off a feisty Fresno Pacific Team late to earn its 16th victory of the year.  The Urban Knights never relinquished their early advantage, but did see the Sunbirds come as close as one point with over six minutes left in regulation before a focused Academy of Art squad finished off the 66-59 win in what served as their home venue at Cal State East Bay's Pioneer Gym.

“It's easy to have a let-down game after a big win like [the one we had] so that's definitely something that we talked about,” head coach LaNay Larson. “I thought we came out really well in the first five minutes and then we got kind of complacent the rest of the first half. And I said this is a scary team that knocked off Hawaii Pacific so it's someone that you never have a big enough lead on.”

ART U played a relentless opening four minutes in which the Knights' first five made baskets were all layups. When they weren't getting high-percentage shots around the basket, two of which belonged to senior Jordan Rogers, Academy of Art was heavily crashing the offensive boards to eventually put together a 17-6 lead.

Contributions off the bench from junior Alisa Griggs, freshman Jasmin Guinn, and freshman Sha'Nice Storey all helped push the ART U margin to 14 points on two occasions. However, a 14-4 response by the Sunbirds steadily whittled the lead down to just four, 29-25, with 3:25 to play in the first. However, Academy of Art had its own rebuttal.

Starting with free throws from Guinn and aided by a triple from Rogers along with a jumper from senior Ariel Dale, the Urban Knights pushed back a double-digit advantage in just two minutes of action. ART U finished the first half with 22 points in the paint, 11 on second chances, and a 38-28 separation.

“I feel like if I bring energy and keep myself up as well as my teammates by staying positive and being aggressive, our team seems to feed off of each other,” Dale said. “So I try to keep my energy up as high as I can even though we had a big game Thursday and the season has been long, I'm a senior so I only have a little bit to go and I'm trying to stay on top of it every game and just do what I can to help our team succeed.”

The second half began on a positive note for ART U with a layup by senior Katy Wade, but it soon changed after a 9-0 burst by the Sunbirds in which leading scorer Keairra White and Brandi Blackman provided a one-two punch. From up three (40-37), Academy of Art went to up nine following a stretch that included an incredible sequence in which the Knights had six offensive rebounds on one possession and finally converted on a Guinn layup off the feed from freshman Zoie Sheng.

ART U stayed in command, but Fresno Pacific started a 7-0 run with nine minutes left that would slice down the lead to just one point, 53-52, with still an eternity to play. As she often does in clutch situations, Sheng was fouled and headed to the free throw line where she tossed in two to provide a much-needed buffer and turned into a 7-0 push the other way.

Following a layup by Dale from senior Nicol Biesek's fifth assist, the Urban Knights now held an eight-point lead, 62-54, approaching the three minute mark. FPU had it down to four with under a minute left, but Dale followed up her missed shot with another important offensive rebound, made a free throw, and then a pair by Sheng sealed the 66-59 victory.

“[At halftime], we talked about extending the lead and [Fresno Pacific] did hit some big shots. We struggled a little bit offensively, but I thought down the stretch, I thought we had great composure and ended up pulling out the win,” Coach Larson said.

Academy of Art, who matched its win total from a season ago with this victory, now sits at 16-8 overall as well as 9-5 in PacWest action. Dale finished with a team-high 17 points to go with nine rebounds while Rogers added 15 points and 10 rebounds. Offensive rebounds were a theme for ART U as both Rogers and Dale each had four or more and Wade, who scored seven points, grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds (six on the offensive glass).

“We're a really athletic team and I think we use our quickness and athleticism to get offensive rebounds,” Coach Larson said. “With us not shooting the ball well as of late, offensive rebounds are huge and usually give us some easy put-backs so that's something that just takes effort. And we've really stressed crashing the offensive boards hard with this team.”

Guinn turned in her second consecutive double-digit scoring performance with 14 points off the bench and six rebounds. Sheng added four steals while Biesek had five assists for the Knights.

The high scorer for FPU was White with 18 points despite shooting 6-for-21 from the floor. She was supported by Charde Stevens' 13 points and nine rebounds. On the season, the Sunbirds are now 4-18 overall, 4-11 in PacWest play.

The Urban Knights return to Kezar Pavilion this Tuesday to continue their five-game homestand against Dominican. This game will feature a special Dunk Cancer event presented by the ART U Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Sign up for the FAN BUS here and get a FREE Dunk Cancer T-Shirt!

“Dominican's a scary team and they've played with a lot of the top teams in the conference so we definitely have to be ready,” Coach Larson said. “No game is an easy game for us right now. We've got four games left and we need to win each and every one of them so we're stressing one game at a time and staying focused. We've got to come out and establish a defensive presence as well as do a better job on the defensive boards. We will work on that the next couple of days in practice and get back on track.”