SEASIDE, Calif. – Academy of Art took on Cal State San Marcos in the first day of the Otter Invitational and took an early lead, but ended up falling 68-52 on Friday afternoon inside The Kelp Bed.

Junior guard Kai Tease led ART U scorers with 12 points, making his third game of scoring double-figures. Tease shot a season best 55 percent, 5-of-9, from the field. Senior forward Tim Graham snagged double-digit rebounds for the first time this season, collecting 11 on the day to raise his average to 8.3, fourth highest in the PacWest.

After the Cougars took a quick 2-0 lead on the first possession of the game, ART U came back strong with a 9-0 run. Junior guard Joshua Bagley accounted for five of the points on a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws, while junior guard Stefan Milivojevic capped off the run with a triple for a 9-2 lead. CSUSM battled back to tie the game at 9-9 before taking a 12-11 lead shortly after. A back and forth battle saw the lead change four times in less than two minutes, until senior guard Victor Ruiz de Carranza finished a layup to tie the game 17-17 with 10:20 to play in the first. From there, The Cougars pulled ahead with a 13-0 run to take a demanding 30-17 lead. 

ART U strung together scores on back-to-back possessions and ended the long scoring drought on a layup from junior forward Adrian Byrd-Jelinek, and a jumper by Carranza to cut the Cougars' lead to nine. A couple minutes later the half ended and CSUSM held a 34-24 lead. 

Academy of Art claimed the first points of the second half when Graham stole the ball and went coast-to-coast to finish a nice layup. ART U dwindled the Cougar's lead to seven (40-33) after Graham hit a deep ball and Milivojevic made a free throw with 15:49 on the clock. However, CSUSM took over the game not long after, and pushed their lead to as many as 23. The Urban Knights continued to battle and attempted to get back in the game, but the deficit was too much to overcome. Even after shooting 45 percent from 3-point range in the second half (5-of-11), including senior guard Nemanja Kovacevic making 2-of-2, ART took a 68-52 loss.

Academy of Art will be back in action for the final day of the Otter Invitational to take on host Cal State Monterey Bay at 3 p.m.