Box Score
Photo Gallery (images by Rob Garcia)

Honolulu, HI -- The Academy of Art University men's basketball team faced another one of the streaking teams in the top half of the Pacific West Conference, and although they held leads at different times throughout the game against Hawaii Pacific University, a late run by the Sea Warriors in the final five minutes proved the difference as the Urban Knights fell to open their trip in Hawaii. The Knights (3-9, 1-4 PacWest) closed the gap to within four with minutes to play, but HPU got production from their usual suspects down the stretch in a 61-45 contest at the Neal Blaisdell Center.

It was a back and forth game in the early going, as the Sea Warriors (8-2, 3-1 PacWest) made the first two shots of the game but the Urban Knights came back to take a 12-8 lead on a triple from Alexis Moore with 10:20 to go. ART U would get their lead to as much as six when Matt Cesca got an offensive board and created a shot to make it 17-11, but HPU would come back to tie it at 17-17 on a dunk from Farbod Farman with 6:27 to go in the half. The Knights took a lead again at 21-20 on a jumper by Rodrigo Maza with 4:34 to go, but a run by the Sea Warriors put them up at the break 30-27.

Out of the half, HPU quickly jumped out to a ten-point lead, making it 37-27 with just under 17 minutes to go. But the Knights battled back, and after eight straight points from Alex Carmon, who made a layup, a free throw, and a three-pointer, the Knights pulled to within five at 41-36. They would make it a one-point contest on back-to-back layups from their big, as Aaron Aikman took a feed from Carmon and Maza got the fish from Alexis Moore to make it 41-40. It was Carmon again who made a key layup to make it 48-44 with 5:55 on the clock, but then the Knights luck ran out from the field. The Sea Warriors slowly built up the lead from there, finishing the night on a 13-1 run to stretch their win streak to six straight.

Moore led the Urban Knights with 15 points and also chipped in six rebounds and a career-high five steals. Carmon had 10 points, all in the second half, and four rebounds. Justin Long, who has been leading the Sea Warriors in scoring this season, had a game-high 19 points, while Malte Zieganhagen and Darry Jones, Jr. each had 10 points for HPU. ART U will turn it around and play at BYU-Hawaii on Monday evening before finishing the island trip against Chaminade.