Box Score

Photo Gallery (images by Emily Anderson & Samm McAlear)

San Francisco, CA -- The Academy of Art men's basketball team is starting to play some good basketball, and moving forward will have a lot of positives to build off of in Saturday's contest against UC San Diego. The next step will be to put together two complete halves, as the Knights played a great first half but faltered in the second, dropping the contest to the Tritons 80-66.

Fouls and free throws again played the antagonist for the Knights (0-3), as the Tritons (3-1) went to the line 43 times, effectively killing any advantage the home team had on the fast break, where they outscored UCSD 8-2. It also put most of the Knights starters in foul trouble from the start, as William Overton, Jr. fouled out and Noah Koné-Nelson, Hunter Hayden, Myles Babitt, and Mike Jorritsma all had four fouls.

Probably the most important part of the Urban Knights' effort on Saturday was their ability to find other ways to score. Overton, Jr. had been leading the Knights in scoring all season, averaging 19.3 points per contest, but only managed six against the Tritons. Ameer Shamsud-din stepped up with 32 points, a season-high for the Urban Knights. 

The Knights went into the locker room at halftime with a 38-36 lead, having had put together a solid first half where they shot 48% from the field. Shamsud-din scored almost two-thirds of those points himself, shooting 9-for-12 and 3-of-5 from beyond the arc for 25 points. To put it in perspective, the rest of the team shot 5-for-17 in the opening half.

"That's gonna happen," Sembrowich said. "Ameer and Overton can really score, they're explosive that way. I think that UC San Diego did a good job limiting Overton on his touches, and Shamsud-din really picked up the pieces at that point."

Academy of Art did a great job containing Tritons center Christian Hatch in the first half, limiting the Tritons' leading scorer to only seven points in the opening period, shooting only 1-of-6 from the floor. But Hatch, who is now averaging 20.8 points per game, exploded in the second half for 16 points, giving him 23 on the night. 

"They were able to get it inside in the second half," Sembrowich said. "We had a plan and we executed it in the first half, but they were able to get it in deep to Hatch in the second half and it really made a difference."

With Shamsud-din putting up 32 points in Saturday's game, the Knights, including exhibitions, have now had 20-point games from three different scorers. Overton has put up two games, and point guard Czar Robotham also chipped in a 21-point performance in the exhibition game against UC Santa Cruz. 

"I thought Czar played well tonight," Sembrowich said. "We had 21 assists on our 25 baskets. That was a nice job of sharing the ball, and I think he really spearheaded that effort. Some nights he'll score more, some nights he might not score as much, but he's still really valuable."

The Urban Knights could add another name to that list of scorers if Noah Koné-Nelson can keep improving his game. The 6'7 sophomore from Portland scored 12 points for the second straight game, showing off a mid-range baseline jumper four times on Saturday. Koné-Nelson never reached double figures last year, scoring nine points once in 2010. 

"It's something he's been working on, he's starting to get a little more comfortable with it," Sembrowich said. "He had twelve points again tonight. If we can get twelve point a game out of him every time we'll be very pleased with his production."

The Urban Knights will have a couple days off before they head off to Phoenix to face off against Fort Lewis and Seattle Pacific in the GCU Holiday Classic.