Box Score

San Rafael, CA – Crashing the offensive glass hard, ART U Women's Basketball captured its 18th Pacific West Conference victory Monday night in a 69-59 win over Dominican. Academy of Art went on a 14-3 run, including seven unanswered, to close the first half and held the lead the rest of the way. Three Urban Knights grabbed four offensive rebounds apiece including Krystal Forthan who finished with her 12th consecutive double-double (17 points, 14 rebounds).

It was a slow start for ART U as the Penguins jumped out to an 8-2 lead, powered by the excitement from a pre-game 'Senior Night' celebration. However, Academy of Art battled back with an 8-1 run to tie things up 13-13. Forthan hit a pair of jumpers while Aleigh Krug and Sha'Nice Storey converted layups during the push.

"We had a little bit of a let down today," head coach LaNay Larson said. "I think we got a little too content with where we were at. I hope it was a little bit of a wake up call again that we need to be at our best every game or it's going to be a battle."

Two more ties ensued before the Knights made their decisive surge ahead, sparked by a Forthan layup and later expanded by three consecutive layups by Regina Camera and Storey. A 3-pointer from Storey gave her seven consecutive points and the aforementioned 14-3 run gave ART U its 35-24 halftime advantage.

In the first four minutes of the second half, Dominican cut down the lead to five, but Jasmin Guinn scored a pair of layups and Zoie Sheng dropped in two free throws to resume the 10-point margin. Academy of Art, who ended up having 27 points off 20 Dominican turnovers, went up 45-34 on a Storey layup following her steal and the lead continued to hover around double digits.

Six straight points from Forthan helped ART U hold on despite continued comeback attempts by the Penguins. They came to within seven, 61-54, with two minutes left, but Sheng effectively shut the door, scoring on a layup as the seas parted in the middle and then adding a pair at the foul line. The final score of 69-59 gave Academy of Art its 11th consecutive victory, furthering the athletics department's best streak.

ART U improves to 21-6 overall and a conference-best 18-1 backed by Forthan's 17 points (7-of-16 FG), 14 rebounds, two blocks, and two steals. Sheng added 15 points (7-of-9 FT) with four steals and two assists. Storey contributed 11 points with six rebounds and three assists. All in all, the Urban Knights had 27 of their 56 rebounds on the offensive glass.

"I was pleased with our effort again on the offensive boards," Coach Larson said. "It honestly won us the game on a night where we had a really tough time hitting shots."

Dominican falls to 8-17 overall, 8-11 in PacWest play though the Penguins did get a game-high 20 points, eight rebounds, and seven steals from Lauren Hyatt. Carly Holboke added 10 points off the bench.

Academy of Art plays its last home game this Thursday, Feb. 27 with Azusa Pacific in town at Kezar Pavilion. This final regular season game will be both "Dunk Cancer" and "Senior Knight" featuring a raffle for MONSTER headphones as well as a special pre-game ceremony honoring Amanda Encelan and Alisa Griggs. Please note the new tipoff time of 7:30pm following the men's game. Sign up for the FAN BUS here!

"I look for us to bounce back with more energy and discipline on Thursday," Coach Larson said. "We would love to finish out the regular season with a big win, but will have to bring our best game against a very tough APU team."