BELMONT, Calif. – While wet weather pelted the outside of Walter Gleason Gym, Academy of Art women's basketball was busy raining down 3-pointers and locking down Chaminade defensively for a 86-48 Pacific West Conference victory, setting season-highs in nearly every statistical category in the process. Among the highlights in the Urban Knights' 74-30 edge over the Silverswords in the final three quarters were 49 bench points led by career games from sophomore forward/center Alisha Wilson (26 points, 12 rebounds) and freshman guard Madison Johnson (23 points with seven triples).

"I was so proud of everyone for playing their role tonight and contributing in more ways than one," said Head Coach Lindsey Foster. "At halftime, we talked heavily about not taking our foot off of the gas and continuing to execute on both ends of the floor."

Though the game's first 11 points were scored by the visitors, a long-range rebuttal promptly came from ART U with junior guard Ashana Hinds hitting three 3-pointers and Johnson adding one to make it an 18-12 score at the end of the opening quarter.

From there, Academy of Art put together a 9-0 run to begin the second frame with Wilson scoring the final five points of that stretch. Having erased the deficit, the Knights continued to connect from distance as Hinds sunk another triple and Johnson provided two more for a 30-23 advantage. The margin then became double digits by halftime, 42-31, thanks to an 8-0 surge featuring two scores by Wilson, one by senior guard Lauryn Manns, and another by Johnson all in the paint.

"That second quarter was huge for us to have momentum into the half," Foster said. "Madi hit a few threes that pushed the lead then Alisha scored and got to the line. We harped on feeding our posts and taking advantage of our inside presence."

Bridging the two halves, the scoring streak became 12-0 after freshman guard Kyla Wandick and Manns both converted to open the third quarter while four straight misses came on the other end. Wilson's layup capped a 7-2 push to make it a 20-point lead for ART U with just over a minute left then Johnson nailed her second 3-pointer of the quarter for a 62-41 advantage moving to the fourth.

After sophomore guard Jadence Clifton's triple delivered the exclamation mark to seven unanswered midway through, the Knights grew the margin considerably on a 16-0 run in which they forced eight missed shots and four turnovers. When the dust settled, it was a nearly 40-point victory for the home team, 86-48, with the Silverswords' seven fourth-quarter points tying for the seventh-fewest allowed by an ART U opponent since the quarter format began in 2015-16.

Academy of Art improves to 1-8 on the year and 1-2 against PacWest opponents with impressive performances across the board. Wilson's fourth double-double (18th in her career) of the season took the form of the aforementioned career-high 26 points (four better than her previous high) and 12 rebounds. Johnson's seven 3-pointers were tied for the sixth-most in ART U's single-game history, propelling her to a season-best 23 points along with seven rebounds. Hinds added four triples as part of her season-high 14 points, Wandick was not far off a triple-double as she totaled eight points with seven assists and five rebounds, and Clifton finished with five points, seven rebounds, five steals, and three assists.

"It's hard to beat teams when multiple players contribute in some shape or form," Foster said. "Madi was a big part of our success tonight going 7-for-9 from distance as well as Alisha with her double-double and getting to the line 12 times. We had big-time rebounders tonight, we had our scorers, we had our steals leader in Jadence and our assists leader in Kyla. Just an overall great team win."

Falling to 0-7 overall and 0-3 in conference play, Chaminade was led by 19 points from Dallas Martinez, but no other Silversword scored in double figures.

In one week's time on Dec. 17, ART U will host Azusa Pacific in another afternoon matchup tipping off at 1 p.m.