Box Score

Belmont, CA -- After beating Notre Dame de Namur handily last week, the Academy of Art University men's basketball game played a much more closely contested game that came down to the wire before the Argos held off the late charge to send the Knights to a 72-67 loss. The Urban Knights closed it to within one point with under two minutes to play, but NDNU shot over 95% from the line in the game, going 12-of-13 in the second half to close out the game. 

"The guys came out and played hard tonight," said head coach Julius Barnes. "I thought we did a decent job of defending [Simon] Enciso. However, other players stepped up for them and made plays when it counted. We didn't shoot particularly well from the free throw line, had a few miscues in transition and just couldn't convert around the rim. All things considered, the guys still stayed in and battled to the final buzzer."

The Knights held the lead for a lot of the first half, going ahead when Rodrigo Maza laid it in with 13:40 left to make it 14-12. Academy of Art got the lead up to eight points in that same run, as Aaron Anderson made a jumper to make it 22-14 with 10:52 on the clock. NDNU came back to tie the game for the fourth time in the first half at 27-27 with 1:12 left, and would score the final six points of the half to go into the break up 41-27.

They would stretch the the lead to seven with Johnny Hutton nailed a three-pointer to make it 40-33 with 16:49 left. The Knights would close to 40-39 on a layup from Anderson, but the Argonauts would respond to make it an eight-point lead after a layup from Don Washington. They briefly got it into double digits with around seven minutes to go, but ART U had one more run in them.

With NDNU up 62-54 with 3:53 to go, Aaron Aikman laid it in off a dish from Alexis Moore. Sergio Valdeolmillos followed with a three-pointer, and after a jumper from the Argos, Moore and Anderson had back-to-back layups with 1:48 left to make it 64-63. But down the stretch, James Northup made six straight free throws to make it 70-65 with 14 seconds left, and Enciso iced it with a pair of his own, making it 72-67 in favor of NDNU.

ART U outshot the Argos from the field, led by Aaron Aikman's 16 points. Alex Carmon and Aaron Anderson each poured in 12 points, and Moore had 11 points and nine rebounds. But the Knights struggled from the line, shooting 11-for-25 for the game and only 20 percent from three-point range. The Argonauts made 20-of-21 from the line and eight three-pointers to tip the scales, led by Korey Serna's 17 points.

The Knights will take on Fresno Pacific on Monday before hosting Dixie State next Saturday at San Francisco State.