Box Score

San Francisco, CA – Academy of Art University Women's Basketball picked up its sixth consecutive victory, outdoing Notre Dame de Namur 93-66 on Saturday afternoon at Kezar Pavilion. The Urban Knights had program single-game records at the free throw line (34-of-43), including a 17-of-21 first half, and were supported by 42 bench points led by Alisa Griggs' 18.

The two teams, each coached by members of the same Dixie State staff years ago, played one another very evenly through the first nine minutes. A Jennifer Jasper layup started things off, but Regina Camera quickly answered with a triple off the feed from Zoie Sheng. Head coach LaNay Larson's Urban Knights and Angela Kristensen's Argonauts ultimately battled one another to an 18-18 tie with 12 minutes to play in the opening half.

It was a big three-point play converted by Sheng that broke that deadlock and sent ART U on its way for an 8-1 run in which Krystal Forthan also had a three-point play and Griggs got her first points of the afternoon. It was a 26-19 advantage for the Knights and the margin would remain for three minutes as Camera and Molly O'Brien took care of business at the foul line.

Though Maya Arellanes helped the Argos cut the lead down to three, Academy of Art responded with a 9-0 run which would essentially decide the game. The surge came exclusively in the form of free throws with Aleigh Krug, Griggs, O'Brien, and Amanda Encelan all converting. An Amy Woo 3-pointer with 15 seconds left appeared to give NDNU hope, but the ART U lead rose back to double-digits, 41-30, on the final play of the half which featured a slick pass from Forthan to Griggs for the layup at the buzzer.

It took a minute for the offenses to find their rhythm to start the second, but when they did ART U quickly approached a 20-point advantage. The Knights attacked the paint and though they traded baskets with their opponent for a brief span, free throws by Sha'Nice Storey and then a 3-pointer by the sophomore made it 60-41 with 14:19 left.

Having risen above 20-points by the halfway mark of the period, it seemed that continued conversions either in the paint or at the foul line were building the Academy of Art lead more and more. A jumper by Forthan with 7:27 to play made it a 25-point game, but shortly thereafter NDNU attempted a comeback with a 7-0 run keyed by Jasper and Woo.

That opportunity was then squashed by ART U with Madeline Martin getting a breakaway layup and free throws eventually running up the score to the largest margin of the day, 93-66, at the end.

Now 15-5 overall and 13-1 in PacWest play, the Urban Knights were led offensively by Camera's 19 points including three 3-pointers. Griggs was hot off the bench for 18 points and five rebounds while Forthan had her sixth consecutive double-double by way of 13 points and 10 rebounds to go with four assists. Sheng added 11 points and five assists followed by 10 points (6-of-6 FT) off the bench from O'Brien. The 34 made free throws surpassed the previous program record of 27 which came against BYU-Hawaii back on Feb. 3, 2010.

NDNU drops to 4-16 overall, 3-11 in conference play and was led by 17 points from Jennifer Jasper in 19 minutes. Amy Woo added 14 points and six rebounds.

Academy of Art now awaits its rematch with Holy Names on Thursday, Feb. 13 set to take place back inside Kezar Pavilion at 5:30pm.