Box Score

San Francisco, CA – Tuesday night was a sweet taste of déjà vu for Academy of Art University men's basketball.

In the final seconds of a tie game, junior forward Keith Davis was again called upon to be the hero, and he delivered. The Urban Knights were propelled to their second consecutive Pacific West Conference victory, a 66-64 triumph over Hawaii-Hilo, by a layup from Davis with 00:04 left on the clock. An energetic crowd erupted after watching ART U execute its 21-3 second half surge to come back and win with the dramatic finale.

“The ending to this game was similar [to last Thursday] because Keith scored the winning basket once again, but it was very different in the sense that we came from behind with a 26-5 run that took us from down 11 to up 10 [in the second half],” Head Coach Mark Sembrowich said. “That was because we got stops and we really guarded. We said this team scores in the 80s and 90s so we needed to hold them under 65 points. And we held them to 64 tonight. Our goal is to hold our opponent's field goal percentage to under 40 percent and they shot 35 percent. We were very pleased with our defense in the second half.”

Early on, ART U jumped out to a 4-0 lead with made jumpers from Davis and freshman forward William Overton, Jr. The Knights held on to the advantage until Hawaii-Hilo came back to tie things up, 8-8, on a dunk by guard Lavell Shipman. Both teams battled back and forth until the Vulcans used a 12-5 run to gain a 10-point advantage late in the half. Academy of Art did respond with a 7-0 burst sparked by a jumper from freshman center Noah Koné-Nelson, and fueled by a 3-pointer from Overton, Jr.

However, Hawaii-Hilo closed the half with a 10-4 rebuttal, giving them a 37-28 lead at the break against the Knights' balanced scoring attack. Though the Vulcans built upon their advantage early in the second period, they could not have expected the turnaround that would ensue. After being up 41-30, UHH was blind-sighted by a 21-3 ART U scoring barrage. Davis began the seven-minute stretch with a jumper off an assist from freshman guard Czar Robotham, and then Overton, Jr. came alive. The freshman forward converted a three-point play and then nailed a 3-pointer in transition for six quick points.

It was blow after blow as senior forward Jonathan Burnett earned a three-point play of his own, and Davis then knocked down a triple to tie the contest, 44-44. From there, the Knights would not relent. Burnett put in two more foul shots and junior center Hunter Hayden along with Overton, Jr. each added layups. When the dust began to settle, Academy of Art had taken a 10-point lead and was holding on tightly to it with 8:35 left.

Jumpers by Davis and Overton, Jr. along with a pair of free throws made from senior guard Devin Williams all kept the margin around double digits for the Knights. As the contest approached its finish, however, Hawaii-Hilo managed to push across a 12-2 run that tied the game 64-64 with 24 seconds remaining.

After calling a timeout to set up another potential game-ending shot, Academy of Art put the ball in play with 20 seconds left. Much to the home crowd's delight, Davis dribbled in against the Vulcan defense, rose against all opposition, and put a layup gently into the basket. ART U had triumphed in dramatic fashion for the second night in a row.

“The crowd was great,” Coach Sembrowich said. “Obviously this was 'Late Night with the Knights' and we're very pleased. Hopefully this will get kids excited and get the student body juiced up and keep them coming back.”

The game's two leading scorers both wore ART U red and black. Davis and Overton, Jr. each had 18 points apiece with five rebounds between them. Burnett was a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line and added nine points on the night. Robotham and Hayden shared a game-high of seven rebounds apiece (Robotham's season-high), while Robotham also dealt out seven assists. The victory improves Academy of Art University's record to 5-12 overall, and 2-5 in PacWest play.

“We had a number of good performances with Hunter having seven rebounds, and Czar having seven rebounds and seven assists,” Coach Sembrowich said. “I thought Jonathan Burnett did a very good job on Justin Smith. I think Smith is one of the better scorers in our league and he's been over 20 points in their last five games. He had 15 tonight and he was 5-for-15. He really had to work hard to get those 15 points and I think Jon did a great job on him defensively.”

The aforementioned Smith led the Vulcans with 15 points and six rebounds. UHH also had 12 points and four rebounds from guard Aukai Wong, but Smith and Wong combined to go just 10-for-29 (.345) from the field. Hawaii-Hilo, who had owned the best overall record in the PacWest coming in, now drops to 12-5 overall, and 4-2 in the PacWest.

It will be a quick turnaround for ART U as the next home game comes this Thursday, Jan. 27 against Hawaii Pacific. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 PM following the women's contest inside Kezar Pavilion.