BELMONT, Calif. – Taking the court for the first time since Mar. 5, 2020, Academy of Art University men's basketball led Dominican by four points inside the final two minutes, but the Penguins rallied late and were able to hold on for a 77-73 victory in the season debut of Pacific West Conference basketball in Northern California. The Urban Knights were led by a game-high 26 points from redshirt junior guard Jalen Lovett who played in his first ART U action to date while senior forward Josh Hill composed a double-double with 14 points and a career-high 18 rebounds (second-most in program history) all inside Walter Gleason Gym on Friday evening. 

It was a Christopher Williams II 3-pointer for the Penguins that got the game started, setting the tone for what would be a tightly contested contest throughout. The largest lead for either team in the first half was five, which Dominican did twice, but the Urban Knights showed their grit with a 9-2 run to close out the first half and take a two-point lead into the half at 29-27. 

Even after ending the first half with the lead, ART U started to find their groove from the field by knocking down 57.7 percent of their shots in the second half. It was senior guard Joshua Bagley and Lovett that kickstarted the Urban Knights, scoring the first 11 points of the frame for ART U and giving them a three-point lead. Lovett would go on to score 15 of his points in the second half, while Bagley notched all of his eight points in the frame. Despite having the largest lead of the game (six points) at the 14:21 mark, the Urban Knights could not put away the Penguins, as Dominican would tie the game nearly three minutes later. 

After eight more lead changes and four times the game was tied, the Urban Knights held the advantage with the 70-66 lead with just 1:57 remaining. It was from the free throw stripe where the Penguins would do their damage, as down by four they would sink their last 11 points from the line en route to the victory, including five from Jaelen Ragsdale. Along with Lovett and Hill, senior guard Stefan Milivojevic would finish in double figures with 10 points to go with six boards. Four Penguins hit double-digits in the scoring column, led by Ragsdale's 18, while Christian Futch tallied a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

The two teams will tango again tomorrow, this time in San Rafael, Calif. from the Conlan Center at 6 p.m.