SAN FRANCISCO – Academy of Art University women's basketball closed the 2015 calendar year in impressive fashion, scoring a season-high in its 95-67 rout of Fresno Pacific 95-67 to finish the calendar year a perfect 4-0 in Pacific West Conference play. A 17-2 run bridging the first and second quarters featured three offensive put-backs, a signature for ART U in this game as 25 second chance points spelled the difference inside Kezar Pavilion on Saturday. Beyond a highly productive starting unit, the Urban Knights got a boost from junior forward
Priscilla Mora's game-high 10 rebounds off the bench.
The teams, who had
met one week prior in Fresno, jockeyed for position early on and found themselves all knotted up at 15-15 with the conclusion of the first quarter. However, layups following offensive rebounds by senior guards
Sha'Nice Storey and
Jasmin Guinn gave the Knights momentum to end the frame and that snowballed when a technical foul paired with a regular shooting foul to give ART U four free throws early in the second quarter.
Storey and Mora were responsible for the next 15 Academy of Art points as Storey began to settle into a similar rhythm as the week prior with consecutive 3-pointers. The surge took the Knights from down four at the end of the first to up 43-30 at halftime with Guinn's coast-to-coast conversion in the final minute.
Senior center
Caron Brown enforced the double-digit lead as ART U started the second half with 8-for-10 from the field. Storey, senior guard
Zoie Sheng, and Guinn each hit triples amid other scoring all during what became a 13-4 push. Now with more than a 20-point advantage, Academy of Art worked to maintain that margin by way of Storey's fifth 3-pointer and a layup by senior guard
Regina Camera.
The Sunbirds worked their way to within 13 points late in the third and 10 early in the fourth, but Camera and Sheng combined for 19 of ART U's 26 points in the final piece of what was a new season-high 95 points for the home team and the victory.
Beyond the 4-0 PacWest record, ART U moves to 9-5 overall with the win. Sheng finished with a game-high 22 points including perfect 10-for-10 performance at the foul line (two makes off the program record she set last year). She added six assists and two steals. Storey, whose season-high 30 points had come against this same FPU team
one week ago, contributed 21 points including 5-for-8 shooting from long range.
Guinn had 19 points, six steals, five rebounds, and three assists while Camera put in 11 points with eight rebounds. Mora had her second consecutive game rebounding in the double digits with 10 boards to complement eight points in 17 productive minutes off the bench.
Fresno Pacific drops its third straight contest and remains in search of its first conference victory through four tries. The Sunbirds are 2-8 overall this year. Hannah Ramirez led the squad offensively, scoring 16 points including three 3-pointers despite six turnovers.
Now one of just three undefeated PacWest teams, Academy of Art will have more than two weeks before its next contest, a Jan. 5 Bay Area battle at Holy Names.
