Box Score

San Francisco, CA --- The Academy of Art women's basketball team defeated the visiting BYU-Hawaii Seasiders, 87-73, Saturday Afternoon at Kezar Pavilion. The Urban Knights' 'big three' were the key to their well deserved victory. Jessica Nolan, Verity Peets and Nicole DeRosier each scored 20+ points in the win. Junior guard, Nicole DeRosier, led the way for ART U, finishing with a career and program high, 29 points. The Urban Knights improve to 9-14 overall and 7-7 in the PacWest Conference. BYU- Hawaii, however, drops to 3-9 in conference play and 4-17 overall.

Nicole DeRosier opened the contest with a steal and a jumper to put the Urban Knights on top, 2-0, early. DeRosier then hit ART U's next two baskets to put them up 7-2 just three minutes into the contest. Senior duo Jessica Nolan and Verity Peets got involved in the action too, as they both hit back-to-back baskets giving ART U an 11-5 advantage before the first media timeout. Back from the break, Peets added two more points to the Knights' total, making the score 13-5.

Down by seven the Seasiders began their climb back into the contest. BYU brought the game to within one point, 21-20, with 11:07 remaining in the half. However, an Alisa Griggs lay-up followed by a DeRosier 3-pointer put ART U back up by six, 26-20. The Urban Knights' lead would continue to fluctuate over the next two minutes until the Seasiders took their first lead of the half on a Richelle Rieben three-point bucket. Over the next 6:53, there would be six ties and five lead changes. But despite all the back and forth action, the Urban Knights remained focused and ended the half the same way they began it; with a DeRosier jumper to put them up by two, 47-45, over the Seasiders heading into the locker room.

“During the break I told the team that the score is 2-0 and there's 20 minutes left to play. We had to be more aware of their screens defensively and we needed to keep working hard on our transition defense and stay confident and attack offensively,” Yamasaki said.

Coach Yamasaki's halftime talk looked to have resonated with her team as the Urban Knights wasted no time opening up a 16 point lead over BYU-Hawaii within the first five minutes of the second half. The Urban Knights extended their lead over the Seasiders to 19 points on four different occasions before the half retired. The Academy of Art women were on fire in the second half as Verity Peets, Alisa Griggs and Jessica Nolan each helped ART U dominate the Seasiders. Freshman guard Madeline Martin sealed the win with two free-throws, giving the Urban Knights a 16 point advantage going into the final minute of play. The Knights outscored the Seasiders 44-22 in the paint, and used 22 second chance points to secure the 87-73 victory.

For BYU-Hawaii four players finished in double digits in scoring. Zori Drew led the way with 16 points. She was 6-9 from the floor including 4-6 from three point territory. Leading scorer Richelle Rieben finished with 13 points. Kristen Hartley was 4-of-5 from the floor and chipped in with 11 points. Danna Hooper added 10 points.

DeRosier had 18 of her career high 29 points in the first half. The junior finished the game shooting 12-of-23 from the floor and 5-of-13 from long range. “Nicole was consistently aggressive tonight. She attacked and took what the defense gave her. She can score like that any night as long as she never lets up,” said Yamasaki.

Verity Peets contributed 26 points in the victory, 16 of which came in the second half. Peets was 10-of-17 from the floor, and finished with a game high 11 rebounds. Yamasaki had this to say of the senior, “Verity came on in a big way offensively for us tonight after a minimal defensive effort early in the game. I reminded her to get her defense going which would take less pressure off her offense. Once she let it come to her it was fun to watch her go!”

Jessica Nolan's 20 point performance rounded out the big three tonight. Nolan finished 7-for-12 from the floor and 6-of-9 from the free-throw line. She also notched 10 rebounds which earned the senior her 11th double-double of the season. An achievement which has set a new program record for most double-doubles in a season. “Jess get's it done for us day in and day out. She steadily helped wherever we needed it tonight. She is our utility on offense and our steady presence defensively and on the glass,” Yamasaki closed.

The Urban Knights face Dominican University on Friday, February 25th in San Rafael, CA. Game time is set for 5:30 PM.