HONOLULU – Thursday evening's Pacific West Conference women's basketball rematch between Academy of Art and Hawaii Pacific oscillated in the initial stages, but an 11-0 push by the HPU came in the second quarter and proved to be the difference in the home team's 67-48 victory inside their own Shark Tank.

A jumper by senior guard Ashana Hinds got the scoring started in what became a back-and-forth first quarter. Hawaii Pacific briefly led by four points, but baskets by sophomore guard Alba Rovira Ayuso and freshman guard Lucia Revenga countered and the teams were knotted at 13-13 heading to the second frame. After an early triple by graduate student guard Emilia Dougherty, the game's 14th lead change came at the start of an 11-0 run by the Sharks to eventually put them up 37-22 by halftime.

Out of the break, Rovira Auyso knocked down a 3-pointer midway through the third quarter that cut the margin down to 10 points, but two triples by HPU in the final minute had them back up 52-36 by the end of the third quarter. The difference went beyond 16 just once to start the fourth before ART U fought back and eventually brought it to 56-43 following graduate student guard Briana Baker-Bruce's three-point play with still four minutes left. The Sharks responded, however, by converting their own three-point opportunity and finished on an 8-2 run to prevail 67-48.

"Really tremendous job by the Sharks tonight," said Head Coach Jesse Clark. "We made some adjustments to our defensive angles and rotations in the second half, unfortunately some really good looks that we had in that half did not go down to help us come back. We will get better tomorrow and continue our growth edge."

Academy of Art, now 3-10 on the season and 2-5 in PacWest play, was led by Rovira Ayuso's 15 points (on 6-for-12 shooting from the field) with seven rebounds while three other Knights, junior forward/center Christy Ojide, Baker-Bruce, and junior forward Yasmine Sifaoui, finished with six points apiece. Ojide added nine rebounds, Baker-Bruce had three steals, and Sifaoui provided six points plus two blocks. Revenga totaled five steals as well.

Hawaii Pacific elevates to 4-7 overall and 2-3 versus conference opponents after a breakout performance from Allison Ross who posted a game-high 27 points with six 3-pointers in just 21 minutes off the bench.

The Urban Knights will remain on Oahu for a rematch with Chaminade this Saturday, Jan. 13 set for 1 p.m. HT (3 p.m. PT) inside McCabe Gymnasium.