Box Score

San Francisco, CA -- In their final game of the homestand, the Academy of Art University men's basketball team played their hearts out in one of the most exciting games in school history, but ultimately were felled by BYU-Hawaii in overtime on Saturday night. The Urban Knights set a new program record in scoring and provided thrill after thrill, making the game-tying three with 4.7 seconds left in the game and sticking with the Seasiders throughout the extra period before falling 112-107. Alexis Moore, who made the tying shot, scored 31 points in 42 minutes for the Knights.

"I saw a lot of heart," said head coach Julius Barnes. "It revealed itself especially when we had our backs against the wall, having four guys foul out, a very short bench. We had three guys with four fouls in overtime. But the guys didn't back down. They played until the end against a very good team."


The Seasiders immediately jumped out to a lead in the first half, and less than five minutes into the game went up 13-4 on a three-pointer from Cory Lange. They matched that total again with 12:27 to play when Jordan Ngatai completed a three-point play to make it 23-14, but over the next three minutes it was all Urban Knights, who got it done from the free-throw line to eventually claw all the way back into the lead. Alex Carmon, Moore, and Matt Cesca all contributed from the charity stripe and then Herman Pratt IV found an open Sergio Valdeolmillos who put the Knights up 26-25 with a triple and then immediately repeated that task, as it was Pratt who found the Spaniard open only 30 seconds later to make another three that made it 29-27 Knights with 8:15 to play in the half.

BYU-Hawaii responded with a strong stretch of their own to push the envelope and run the lead up to double digits, making their own free throws to go up 43-33 with 3:54 to play to end a 16-4 run. But the Knights roared back to end the half in a big way. Some key buckets and defensive stops saw them down only four points with 1:50 to go after Aaron Aikman laid it in, and even when Cory Lange put the Seasiders up by eight with 37 seconds to go, the Knights were unfazed. Pratt got a big offensive board and put it back up with eight seconds to go, and then Garland Vinson pounced on the inbounds pass and banked it off the glass as the buzzer sounded to make it 49-45 at the half.

The Knights were only down by four thanks to outscoring the Seasiders 22 to 12 in the paint, getting 12 points from Aikman and 11 from  Carmon in the half. In fact, with the exception of Rodrigo Maza, every Knight that checked into the game in the first half had at least one point. Unfortunately, every Knights except one had at least one foul, as BYUH had already taken 23 free throws by halftime in comparison to their 25 field goal attempts.

They continued their hot shooting into the second half, as Moore and Maza had back-to-back shots to tie the game up at 49-49. From then on it was a see-saw battle, with ties against at 53-53 and 55-55 with 15:06 to go. BYU-Hawaii took a lead that held until the 10-minute mark, when steal by Aaron Anderson led to a layup by Carom that made it 69-68 Knights. The Seasider's DeAndre Medlock sandwiched a dunk and a layup around free-throws by Scott Friel as part of an 8-0 run, and Knights were down 82-73 with 4:47 to play.

But Maza, who was quiet for the whole first half, got involved and did so in a big way. After making three straight free-throws, the 6-10 forward was the hot hand, getting a block and then drifting outside for a three-pointer to make it 82-79 with 3:02 to go. The ensuing possession, Aaron Anderson found Maza leaking outside again, and he nailed his second straight triple to tie the game at 72-72 amidst an eruption from the Urban Knights crowd. It came down to the final minute, as free-throws from Jerome Harris made it 91-86 with only 20 seconds left. Alexis Moore took it the full way and made a layup and drew a foul, making it a one-possession game with 14 seconds, and when Luke Aston split the free throws, the Knights had one more chance. Moore got the ball off the inbound and pushed up court, finally getting open at the top of the key and with six seconds left, he rose up and fired a three that found the bottom of the net and sent the game to overtime tied at 92-92. 

Headed to overtime, the Knights were extremely short-handed, with Aikman, Pratt, and Maza having fouled out before the end of regulation and Carmon, Cesca, Anderson, and Valedeolmillos all with four fouls. Cesca immediately fouled out with 4:19 to play, leaving the Knights with only five players and Vinson and Moore the only ones not on the verge of fouling out of the game. ART U held the lead at 96-95 with 3:57 to play, and tied it up again with 1:46 to play on a free-throw from Anderson, but BYU-Hawaii made back to back shots to push it to five points and keep it there. ART U had a layup from Anderson with 17 seconds and a dunk from Carmon with seven seconds left that brought them both times within three points, but Pablo Coro made eight free-throws down the stretch to hold the Knights off and finish the game 112-107.

"Looking at the box score, we had six of nine guys in double figures," said Barnes. "That just shows the ball was moving around. Lex stepped up to make that three to force it into overtime, to still be able to defend aggressively down the stretch, but sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way."

Moore led all scorers with 31 points and also added six assists and five rebounds. Carmon added a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds while dishing out four assists of his own. Maza (15pts, 9rebs), Aikman (12pts), Valdeolmillos (12pts), and Anderson (11pts) were also in double figures for the Knights. The Seasiders had three players score over 20 points, led by Pablo Coro's 26 points, 15 of which came from the free throw line as BYU-Hawaii took almost as many free-throws (58) as field goals (64).

"We remind them that the intensity with which they played for most of this game is the intensity that we have to have for every game moving forward into the future," said Barnes. "We did some really good things, I saw some good things out there. Guys were rotating out to the shooters. But to have a team go to the line almost 60 times, I don't think I've ever seen that in my young career, so that says we were aggressive if anything."

ART U will be back in action next week on the road against Dixie State and Point Loma.