SAN FRANCISCO – In their contest against Fresno Pacific on Friday night, Academy of Art men's basketball never gave up as they battled their way back into it to force overtime and left the Sunbirds scoreless in the extra period to take the Pacific West Conference victory with a 68-60 final score.

"Getting conference wins are hard and tonight was an example of how you have to play 40 minutes, or sometimes more, to get the win," said Head Coach Scott Waterman. "I credit our guys with playing lockdown defense but we need to get off to better starts, and what won us the game was forcing 24 turnovers. I'm looking forward to getting back to work this week and preparing for Chaminade next Saturday."

Fresno Pacific, who dropped to 3-8 overall and 0-3 in conference play after the loss, saw the most success in the opening frame as they built a lead to as many as 12 on numerous occasions, but a 13-5 run to end the half for ART U assisted the squad to be within four as the halftime buzzer sounded. A 3-pointer each from senior guard Rodney Munson, junior forward Bryce Moore, and senior forward Isaiah Williams were the highlights of the run as they were within one, but Cooper Sheldon knocked one down as well with just five seconds remaining to build the lead back to four to make it 32-28. Senior forward Quintin Metcalf had already brought in seven rebounds by the end of half, while Williams led the team in scoring with seven points.

It took less than five minutes for ART U, who improved to 6-4 overall and 2-1 in PacWest action, to bring the game back to an even score as it was knotted up at 35-35. Five more ties were seen down the stretch, and the best Academy of Art game thus far for junior forward Robbie Armbrester saw a majority of his success come in the second half to boost his squad to have the advantage in the final minutes of regulation. FPU was given the opportunity to put up the final shot, but a strong defensive showing from Williams stole the ball away with two seconds remaining to send the contest into overtime.

The extra frame was all ART U with the Knights outscoring the Sunbirds 8-0 to finish the game off with its 68-60 final. Only two points were scored for almost a full four minutes, and in the final minute, the Knights took off for six more points while keeping FPU off the board.

Another showing of team basketball was displayed by the Knights with four players in the double-digits in scoring, led by Williams with 14 while Metcalf (13), Munson (12), and Armbrester (12) all followed behind. Metcalf paired his points with 11 rebounds total to secure his third double-double of the season while the team combined for 14 steals (tied season-high) led by Armbrester's four while he added two blocked shots. 

ART U will be back at it once more to end the calendar year as the Knights will play host to Chaminade on Saturday, Dec. 21 with a 3:30 p.m. tip-off.