HILO, Hawaii – Tough defense and second-chance opportunities were key for ART U women's basketball on Thursday night as the Urban Knights put away UH Hilo 86-53 inside Afook-Chinen Civic Center. Academy of Art came out of the gate on fire, out-rebounded the Vulcans 51-35, and proceeded to keep Hilo to the fewest points by an ART U opponent this season. Senior guard Jasmin Guinn paced her team offensively with 29 points in 28 minutes.

"I thought it was a good team effort on both ends," said head coach LaNay Larson. "We were able to get good quality minutes out of our bench and our starters did a good job of setting the tone."

Academy of Art began the contest on a 14-5 run, making three of its first four field goal attempts including a 3-pointer by senior guard Sha'Nice Storey just 16 seconds in. The Vulcans tried to keep the Knights' lead at single digits with points primarily at the foul line, however, junior forward Priscilla Mora found Guinn for a triple with 12 seconds left to give ART U a 21-13 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

In the second, senior guard Zoie Sheng hit a jumper to give her team a 10-point lead and soon Guinn nailed two more shots from distance to keep the pressure on. Academy of Art closed the opening half on a 7-2 run highlighted by a three-point play from junior forward D'Andree Galipeau and a Sheng triple gave the Knights a 43-28 margin at the break.

Guinn scored ART U's first six points of the second half and pairs of buckets by both Sheng and Galipeau soon pushed a 20-point lead. Academy of Art surged for nine unanswered points and blanketing defense eventually upped the difference to 71-44 through three quarters. Guinn's triple early in the fourth made it more than 30 and there the margin would stay through the 86-53 victory.

The win improves the Knights' record to 8-0 in PacWest play (13-5 overall). Guinn finished with a game-high 29 points (10-for-18 FG, 5-for-7 3PT) as well as 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the year. Sheng added 17 points, five rebounds, and four assists while Galipeau delivered nine points in 16 minutes off the bench.

UH Hilo falls to 2-9 overall and 2-4 in conference despite a team-high 13 points from Kim Schmelz.

ART U continues its three-part PacWest Hawaii roadtrip this Saturday, Jan. 16 when it tips off a 1 p.m. (3 p.m. PT) rematch at Hawaii Pacific in Honolulu.

"We are just trying to improve each game and always have things we can fine tune so we are focused on one game at a time and the HPU rematch will be a very tough test," said Larson.