Box Score
Phoenix, AZ -- Last week in their home opener against Cal State East Bay, the Academy of Art University men's basketball team was able to mount a big comeback in the second half to come back to defeat the Pioneers by two points. This week, in the first game at the GCU Thanksgiving Holiday Classic against Cal State Dominguez Hills, the Urban Knights put together another second-half run, but were unable to recreate the stretch from their last game, falling short against the Toros in a 74-51 loss.
"We didn't have good ball pressure. What it came down to was that they hit a lot of shots," said head coach
Julius Barnes. "We weren't executing on offense, and we got back in a hole in the first half."
The Knights (1-3) spotted the Toros an early lead in the first half, unable to get much going on the offensive end. Cal State Dominguez Hills (4-2) drew contact early on, getting big man and last week's star
Rodrigo Maza into foul trouble less than five minutes into the game. At the second media timeout, the Knights only had eight points in eight minutes, but were still down by 10. A three-pointer by Mitrell Clark gave the Toros a 25-8 advantage, but the Knights started to make some noise as
Alex Carmon and
Czar Robotham both started to heat up. Carmon finished with his first career double-double and was the bright spot for the Knights, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds in the first half.
ART U was burned for being sloppy with the ball, allowing 14 points off their 10 turnovers and getting none of their own in the opening period, while also sending the Toros to the free-throw line 12 times. They also allowed Dominguez Hills to shoot 15-for-31 in the half. Maza was limited to five minutes because of the foul trouble, forcing the Knights to play small and go to their bench early.
Academy of Art started to put it together in the second half again, and although the Toros expanded the lead to it's largest margin at 21 on free-throws from Ramon Williams, the Knights steadily cut that lead to 10 points on a layup from
Bryan Fisher that made it 56-46 with 7:15 to go and giving ART U it's best chance to make a move for their second comeback in two games. But Dominguez Hills just wouldn't let go of the lead, never letting the Knights cut the deficit to single digits, and finishing the game on an 18-5 run and holding Academy of Art off the scoreboard for two full minutes down the stretch.
"Our guys didn't lose hope," said Barnes. "We clawed back and got it close, and then they came down with a big three. We make a run, we get a stop, and then they make a tough shot. We just didn't have enough energy down the stretch to come all the way back."
ART U got a strong second half from
Czar Robotham, who scored nine points in the second half to finish with 15 points. The Knights did cut down on the points off turnovers and getting 12 takeaways and halving their turnovers in the closing period. Myron Green led the Toros with 14 points, while Ryan Jefferson, Mitrell Clark, and Ramon Williams each had nine points for Dominguez Hills.
The Knights will play again tomorrow night at the same time against Northwest Nazarene, who narrowly lost to Grand Canyon in the tournament opener earlier on Friday night.
