Game #29
ART U Urban Knights (20-8, 14-6 PacWest) vs. CUH Silverswords (14-14, 9-11 PacWest) 
Thursday, March 2, 2023 at 5 p.m. HT/7 p.m. PT
Honolulu – McCabe Gymnasium
Live Stats | Live Video
ART U Game Notes 3-2-23

Game #30 *IF NECESSARY*
ART U Urban Knights (20-8, 14-6 PacWest) vs. APU Cougars (21-6, 16-4 PacWest) 
Friday, March 3, 2023 at 5 p.m. HT/7 p.m. PT
Honolulu – McCabe Gymnasium
Live Stats | Live Video
ART U Game Notes 3-3-23

Game #31 *IF NECESSARY*
ART U Urban Knights (20-8, 14-6 PacWest) vs. TBD 
Friday, March 4, 2023 at 4:30 p.m. HT/6:30 p.m. PT
Honolulu – McCabe Gymnasium
Live Stats | Live Video

DEFEND WHAT'S YOURS
Academy of Art men's basketball closed the book on what is arguably their best regular season in program history, but the work continues as now the No. 5 ranked team in the NCAA Division II West Region turns its focus to defending the Urban Knights' 2022 Pacific West Conference Championship victory in the 2023 version of the tournament, starting with tournament host and No. 6 seed Chaminade on Thursday. 

TIP-OFF
The Urban Knights will open the men's portion of the tournament against the Silverswords on Thursday at 5 p.m. HT/7 p.m. PT, and should they win they would advance to face No. 2 seed Azusa Pacific Cougars the following day on Friday at the same time. The PacWest Championship Final will take place on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. HT/6:30 p.m. PT. Remember to follow @ARTU_Knights via the athletics app (Apple App Store, Google Play Store) and on Twitter & Instagram, as well as "Like" the Urban Knights on Facebook for score updates, videos, and recaps.

PACWEST TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
Academy of Art has earned the honor to participate in the Pacific West Conference Championship Tournament for the fourth time in as many seasons (excludes shortened 2020-21 campaign), and the entire championship field has been set as ART U will join Point Loma, Azusa Pacific, UH Hilo, Biola and Chaminade in Honolulu for the tournament hosted by the Silverswords running from Mar. 2-4. The Urban Knights stand ready to defend their first ever PacWest Tournament title after a thrilling ride last season, as ART U had never won a PacWest tournament game prior to knocking off host school Fresno Pacific, No. 1 seed Point Loma, and No. 2 seed Azusa Pacific in an expanded eight-team field en route to claiming the PacWest's automatic qualifying berth in the NCAA DII West Regionals.

This year's version of the tournament returns to a traditional format of six teams with all of the seeds just locked into place following the conclusion of all PacWest contests on the final Thursday of the season. The top two seeds for this year's version remains the same from last season, with Point Loma locking up the No. 1 seed after a perfect 20-0 conference campaign while Azusa Pacific captures the other first round bye with the second seed. Due to their two season wins over UH Hilo and a victory last time out over FPU, the Urban Knights have secured their best seeding ever heading into the PacWest Championship Tournament with the third seed, with the Vulcans dropping to the four seed after consecutive losses to Biola and Point Loma. Taking the fifth seed is the aforementioned Biola Eagles, while tournament host Chaminade is the six seed. Tickets for the 2023 PacWest Championships are on sale now here.

Academy of Art kicks off the defense of its 2022 Pacific West Conference Championship title with what is looking like a similar path from last season. In the opening round ART U will face off against the tournament host, this year taking on the No. 6 seed Chaminade in their home gym. The two teams split the regular season series, with Chaminade handing the Knights their only loss this season scoring above 75 points. Should the Urban Knights advance to the semifinals, they will face off against No. 2 seed Azusa Pacific, who they defeated in last year's PacWest Championship Final to win it all, with a potential matchup against No. 4 in the nation and No. 1 seed Point Loma in the PacWest Championship should both teams make it (ART U won last year's postseason meeting on overtime 3-pointer).

TROPHY CASE
On Monday, Feb. 27, senior guard Klay Brown was picked as the PacWest Defender of the Week for the second time this campaign (also: Nov. 21) after he averaged 5.5 defensive rebounds, 3.5 steals and 2.0 blocks per game over a pair of wins. It was the fifth such honor of his ART U career, tying him for the ART U program-record along with the five by Jase Harrison earned across the 2014-15 and 2015-16 campaigns. He owns the ART U record specifically for PacWest Defender of the Week honors, as no other Urban Knight has earned the award more than twice (Alexis Moore). Overall this is the sixth weekly honor collected by a total of three Urban Knights this season (five Defender of the Week, one Player of the Week), but they just missed out on the program record of the five Urban Knights and seven total awards earned last season. Brown's pair of honors joins the three picked up by senior forward Mike Asante (two-time Defender of the Week Jan. 4 and Jan. 23; Player of the Week Feb. 20) and the Defender of the Week award for junior forward Latrell Williams on Jan. 30. 

Just a day later, the trio of Brown, senior forward MIke Asante and graduate student guard Will Balata all earned All-PacWest Team awards as announced by the PacWest Conference, as Brown and Asante were named to the All-PacWest Second Team while Balata picked up an All-PacWest Third Team selection. This is the sixth consecutive year that at least one Urban Knight has been named to an All-PacWest Team, the ninth season overall with at least one selection, with this year's three Urban Knights topping the previous program record of two honors in a single season which has occurred three times (2019-20: first and third teams; 2020-21: NorCal Pod Selections; 2011-12: honorable mentions).

KNIGHTS' QUEST
On an impressive stretch with wins in eight of their past 10 contests and four consecutive games (all wins by double-digits), Academy of Art was 2-0 last week with a pair of 90-point performances leading to their second and third 30-points victories of the season, which is a new program record (previous: one, three times). It began with a detour of conference play against UC Santa Cruz where the Knights scored their largest win in program history with a 94-60 toppling of the Banana Slugs, with the defense shining by setting their season high and tying the second-best mark in program history with 19 steals on the night while also forcing 32 turnovers, all of which led ART U to score an eye-popping 43 points off of turnovers. Meanwhile, the Knights set a new program record with their 18th regular season win (previous: 17, 2021-22) last time out against Holy Names, matching their season-high (and fifth-highest in school history) point total as ART U dominated the Hawks 98-65 in the final ever meeting between the teams. The shooting hand for the Urban Knights has been on fire as of late, as ART U has now shot above 50 percent in eight of their last 10 periods of game action dating back to their clash with Azusa Pacific on Feb. 2.

After winning the first four games of the season for the first time in program history (all opponents in the CCAA), ART U dropped three of their next four games including their first two PacWest contests against Point Loma and Concordia. This was the first time since 2018-19 that ART U was defeated in its first two PacWest games, with the losses occurring to the same two teams, however, that season culminated in ART U's first ever PacWest Tournament appearance. Academy of Art got back on track winning five of their next seven contests, which included tying the program-record with four straight PacWest victories (accomplished twice last season under Head Coach Scott Waterman) and consecutive 90-point performances with their largest point total of the season (98) against Biola, while the losses came against preseason PacWest favorite Azusa Pacific and NCAA Division I opponent Saint Mary's.

Though Chaminade put a stop to that stretch and snapped the conference winning streak, the Knights finished the year by winning 10 of their last 12 since that contest which includes a pair of three-game streaks scoring 90 or more points (program record). The first such streak started in the loss to the Silverswords, ART U's only loss when scoring 75 points or more. The first span continued with Hilo and CUI, which also happened to see the Knights set a program record with their third and fourth 20-point win of the year (previous record: three, 2021-22) after beating Hilo by 22 before topping Concordia by 31 in the rematch. More recently, ART U has won six straight since the loss to APU with the first five wins by 10 points or more, knocking off Biola and Dominican in conference action before three straight 30-point wins (now four for season; program record) and 90-point performances against UCSC (94), Holy Names (98), and Fresno Pacific (103).  To end the year, the Knights held on late to sweep the season series against Dominican. The only losses in the past 12 contests came to then-No. 20 Point Loma, dropping the Knights to 1-1 against ranked opponents this season after an earlier win against then-No. 19 Saint Martin's, and a defeat at the hands of the No. 2 team in the PacWest Azusa Pacific.

KNIGHT WATCH
ART U has scored 75 or more points in 18 of their 28 contests this year (17-1, 87.7 ppg in those games), including reaching the third-most (103 vs. FPU), fifth-most (98 at Biola and vs. HNU), sixth-most (97 at HNU) and ninth-most (95 at CUH) points in program history. In all, they have hit the 90-point barrier eight times which sets a program record (previous: five, 2021-22). All told, that leads to an overall season average of 79.8 ppg, which would be a new program record. In 19 of 28 games ART U has shot above 40.0 percent from the field, including 14 of the past 18 contests, while reaching above 50.0 percent in nine of those 14 (with four of the past six games) and 10 instances overall with their season best recently against Dominican (61.8 percent, 34-for-55; third-best in ART U history). The hot hand has been sizzling lately, with ART U knocking down more than 50 percent of their attempts in nine of their last 12 periods of game action dating back to APU on Feb. 2 before ending against the Penguins. The current scoring margin of +9.2 will be a new ART U record, which is lifted by their new program record of eight 20-point wins including setting the program record with two 34-point victories (vs. UCSC and vs. FPU; previous: 81-48 vs. UH Hilo, Feb. 13, 2022). 

In comparison opponents are averaging 70.6 ppg against ART U this season, only nine times allowing an opponent to score 75 or more points (high of 98 at CUH). They allowed a season-low 52 points against FPU on Jan. 2, which was the fewest allowed since they gave up just 48 to UH Hilo last season Feb. 13, 2022, and is tied for the sixth-fewest points allowed in school history. Meanwhile, opponents are shooting 41.4 percent (696-for-1682) shooting from the field, 19 times allowing opponents to shoot above 40 percent for the game (high of 50.0 percent vs. SMC). On Jan. 2, FPU was held to just 28.8 percent shooting from the field, the second-lowest percentage ART U has held an opponent to in program history (first: 27.8 percent at HNU, Jan. 6, 2009). There have been 15 times that has ART U totaled double-digit steals with their season best of 19 against the Slugs on Feb. 14 tying the second-best mark in program history. That leads to a current season average of 10.3 per game, finishing with the regular season with 289 total steals which is second-most in ART U history. In the battle on the boards, ART U has snatched 1,103 rebounds (39.4 per game) to the 1,007 of their opponents (36.0 per game), 12 times grabbing 40 or more with their season-best of 53 against HPU tied for third-most in a game in program history. In one more game they will have the second-most rebounds in a single season (current: 1,115), while their 39.4 rpg would easily finish as a program record.

Leading the Urban Knights in scoring is graduate student guard Will Balata, as his 12.2 ppg are just in front of the 12.0 ppg from senior forward Mike Asante. Trailing them both is senior guard Klay Brown with 11.8 ppg, though Brown also leads the team in blocks with a season best of three on five occasions (1.1 bpg; fifth in PacWest). Asante tops the trio having reached double figures a total of 17 times, Brown has done so in 16 games this season, while Balata has done so 15 times. Many have cleaned up the glass for ART U, but Asante's 8.1 rpg leads the Knights and is fourth in the PacWest, setting a new career mark and tying the program record for rebounds in a game with 20 against Point Loma on Jan. 21 (also: Hunter Hayden vs. DSU, 1/17/11). Meanwhile, Williams pulls down 7.0 rpg which places him directly behind Asante for fifth in the PacWest, grabbing 19 boards against HPU to also set his career high and rank third-most in program history. When moving the ball, Brown's 2.9 apg (81 total) leads the team and ranks 10th in the conference, while sophomore guard Rodney Munson adds 2.1 apg and Asante chips in 1.9 apg. Defensively, Brown has notched multiple steals in 20 of 28 games (high of five vs. UCSC) for a team-best average of 2.4, leading the PacWest in steals average and total steals (66). Meanwhile, graduate student guard Deang Deang trails shortly behind in fourth in the PacWest with 1.7 spg (45 total, fourth), while Munson sits 11th with 1.4 per game (39 total).

Academy of Art appears among the national leaders in multiple categories, ranking sixth in steals per game (10.3), 10th in average turnovers forced (17.93), 15th in turnover margin (+3.9), 22nd in rebounding average (39.4 rpg), 37th in scoring margin (+9), 33rd in opponent field goal percentage (41.4), and 48th in opponent 3-point percentage (32.0 percent). Individually, senior guard Klay Brown has reached the top-10 in two categories as he is seventh total steals (66) and eighth in steals per game (2.36 spg).

SILVER-SWORD IN THE STONE
Making it in as the No. 6 seed in the PacWest Championships is the host school Chaminade, as they won four of their past five games down the stretch that included a pair of crucial wins over Fresno Pacific to officially capture their berth to the postseason. Outside the pair of wins against the Sunbirds, they were able to take down Holy Names and Concordia with thee of the four victories by double digits (eight-point win vs. HNU), and their only loss was a high-scoring affair in which Hawaii Pacific came out on top, 100-98. Much like ART U, it was a total of three postseason honors for the Silverswords as Isaac Amaral-Artharee and Braden Olsen also collected All-PacWest Second Team honors while Ross Reeves was picked as the PacWest Freshman of the Year. Amaral-Artharee was the top scorer on the team and fifth in the PacWest with 16.5 ppg, while Olsen was more well-rounded with 13.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game, with the helpers leading all of the conference (140 total). Meanwhile, Reeves dropped the second-most points per game on Chaminade with 15.5 per game, which was also eighth in the PacWest. All of that helped Chaminade to finish with the second-best scoring offense in the conference (81.1 ppg), though their 10th ranked defense (79.3 ppg allowed) kept them in just sixth for scoring margin (+1.8). They also enter the matchup as one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the PacWest, knocking down 9.4 triples per game (third) at a clip of 37.6 percent (first). Chaminade and Academy of Art have evenly split the last four meetings with each side winning on their home floor including the most recent matchup on Jan. 10, and the Silverswords lead the all-time series 21-5. 

COUGARS WITH SHARP CLAWS
Ranked as the No.3 team in the NCAA DII West Region, Azusa Pacific was able to capture a first-round bye along with the second seed for this year's PacWest Championships after finishing the regular season at 21-6 overall and a 16-4 mark in conference play. The Cougars are getting hot at the right time, as they have won nine straight games against a total of seven different opponents (played Biola and Chaminade twice), which also included Academy of Art. There were two PacWest postseason honors for APU, as Ken West was picked to the All-PacWest First Team while Hayden Gray landed on the All-PacWest Third Team. West is the do-it-all type of player for Azusa Pacific, leading the two Cougars in double-digit scoring with 14.6 ppg (11th in the PacWest) while just missing out on the team-lead for rebounds with 5.1 per game. On the glass its Nate Kleppe who leads the way, as he pairs his 5.6 rpg with 7.6 ppg, while Gray is the primary ball-mover with 3.9 assists per game, fourth-most in the PacWest. Though they have just the fifth-highest scoring offense in the conference (74.7 ppg), they boast the second-best defense (65.9 ppg allowed) to remain second in terms of scoring margin (+10.0). They found themselves in the middle of the crowded field for shooting percentage, but the Cougars are second in 3-point percentage (37.0 percent) while also defending the long ball well (opponents shoot 31.8 percent beyond the arc). Azusa Pacific may be looking for payback for last year's PacWest Championship Final, though they did win both season matchups against ART U and lead the all-time series 16-2. 

URBAN KNIGHTS FINISH REGULAR SEASON WITH 20TH VICTORY
A double-digit lead for Academy of Art men's basketball turned into a one-possession lead over Dominican with just 30 seconds remaining in regulation, but as has been the hallmark all season, the ART U defense forced a crucial turnover on the penultimate DU possession as ART U clinched a 75-70 Pacific West Conference victory to win their sixth consecutive game in the season finale.

LOOKING AHEAD
Currently ranked as the No. 5 team in the NCAA DII West Region, Academy of Art looks likely to advance to the NCAA DII West Regionals for the second consecutive year, which is projected to be hosted by current No. 4 team in the nation in fellow PacWest member Point Loma.