BELMONT, Calif. – Though at one time leading by as many as 12, Academy of Art men's basketball had to fend off a late push during its Pacific West Conference clash with the PacWest's second place UH Hilo on Sunday, showing up strong defensively before icing the game from the line to finish off an 83-75 victory. 

"Tonight we took another big step towards making the conference tournament by beating a very good UH Hilo team," said ART U Head Coach Scott Waterman. "We did a great job getting to the paint and sharing the ball which is why we were able to shoot 55 percent for the game. That was a big emphasis for us this week during practice, making sure we got great shots."

Graduate student guard Stephon Hall dialed it up from long range to open the contest for the Urban Knights (14-7, 9-5 PacWest), but it was the Vulcans (14-5, 10-4 PacWest) who built a nine-point cushion after the first five minutes of the contest thanks to a 9-0 run. As quickly as it had been built for Hilo, the lead disappeared as ART U countered immediately with their own 10-0 stretch to recapture the lead.

Helping jumpstart the Academy of Art offense over that span was the duo of graduate student guard Deang Deang and senior guard Klay Brown, who each contributed a pair of buckets while graduate student guard Will Balata added a pair of free throws to help the Knights recapture the lead. In what would be a theme for the night, the ART U defense turned into offense as Deang and Brown each scored once immediately following a UH Hilo turnover. 

The final bucket of that stretch started a seesaw period where the two teams scored on seven consecutive possessions, which included old-fashioned three-point plays from both sides by drawing fouls on successful layups, while Darren Williams contributed a more traditional 3-pointer to have the Vulcans leading 22-21 midway through the period. 

Hilo once again grew the lead to seven points once again after consecutive jumpers from Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, but the Knights finally seized the game's momentum when they produced what became a 14-2 run with four of ART U's five field goals on that stretch coming from beyond the arc. It started with sophomore guard Rodney Munson and Brown hitting triples to bookend a jumper from sophomore forward Jamal Fuller, while Brown and Balata finished it off. 

With the advantage hovering around two possessions for the Urban Knights, one last shot from long range by Hall sent ART U into the break up 44-37. That capped off a half where the Knights hit on 62.1 percent (18-for-29) of their attempts from the floor, which also included hitting half of their looks from beyond the arc (6-for-12), all of which came after a total of nine assists. 

Coming out of the break, ART U kept the pedal down with an 8-3 run to open the half that saw a jumper from Brown and a trio of layups from Brown, senior forward Mike Asante and junior forward Latrell Williams to give the Knights their first double-digit lead. That forced a Hilo timeout, but the ART U margin remained at double digits for over the next three minutes of game action. 

On more than one occasion the Vulcans trimmed the deficit to two possessions only to see Academy of Art increase their advantage back to double-digits, as the Knights still led by as many as 12 points with just over five minutes to play thanks a layup from Balata. UH Hilo gave one final push with an 8-1 run as they trailed by only five points, the closest they had been at any point in the second half with three minutes and 49 seconds still left on the clock.

Both teams turned up the defense while looking for stops, with over a minute passing on the clock prior to the next bucket despite multiple possessions for both teams. Among those stops was a key block from Deang, who swatted away a would-be layup attempt to maintain the two-possession lead. The stretch was finally broken by a jumper in the paint from Asante to help the Knights keep pace in front of the Vulcans, but a jumper in the paint plus the foul by Hilo's Williams once more returned the contest to a five-point difference. 

An untimely ART U turnover gave UH Hilo the chance to make it a one-possession game yet again, but in a moment of dejá vú, it was Deang with his third and final block of the night swatting away a layup attempt with the Knights collecting the rebound. Running out of time, that forced Hilo to foul and watch the Knights ice the game from the free throw line where they made five of their last six attempt for the 83-75 win. Tonight's victory marked a season sweep for Academy of Art, giving ART U their third straight win against the Vulcans for the third occasion in the all-time series history. 

With their 16 steals on the night ART U was able to not only set their new season high, but tie the third-most steals in a single game in program history (also: 12/11/16 at HNU). They kept their hot shooting hand in the second frame, continuing to connect on over half of their attempts to finish the contest at 54.5 percent (30-for-55) from the floor which was their fourth-best performance of the season. 

Four Urban Knights closed the action in double-digit scoring led by the 19 from Brown, who was efficient in the field by going 8-for-9 (88.9 percent) which included going 3-for-4 (75.0 percent) from three-point range. Meanwhile, Balata chipped in 15 points off the bench in a 5-for-7 (71.4 percent) performance from the field, just missing a double-double with a game-high nine rebounds. Rounding out the group was Williams with his 13 points while Deang totaled 12. Even more impressive was the seven different Knights to tally assists in the game, as the trio of Brown, Asante and Munson all accounted for three apiece. 

Entering the game as one of the conference's leading scorers, Tait-Jones showed why with a game-high 22 points while teammate Williams was just behind with 21 of his own. Williams also just missed a double-double, securing nine rebounds which was tied for the game high with ART U's Balata. 

"Defensively, I love how active our hands were which explains our 16 steals which helped to jumpstart our offense," Waterman said. "[I'm] really proud of this win and now we have to prepare for a huge week coming up at APU and Biola."

Those pair of contests begins this Thursday, Feb. 2 as ART U travels to Azusa Pacific to take on the Cougars at 7:30 p.m.