Box Score

Photo Gallery (images by Meg Williams)
ART U Tip-Off Rally (images by Meg Williams)

San Francisco, CA -- The Academy of Art men's basketball team opened up their home schedule on Saturday night, and in a game that saw the Urban Knights trailing by 22 in the first half, the home squad exploded in the second half to emerge victorious over Cal State East Bay 77-75. Rodrigo Maza had a double-double against his former team and Bryan Fisher had a layup with 1:12 left that ended up being the decider in the Knights triumph.

Academy of Art head coach Julius Barnes had talked about putting two halves together, but in the opening period it looked as if the Knights were a little flat, spotting Cal State East Bay (1-2) a big advantage early. But with the Pioneers up 32-10 after two free throws from Tre Mauldin with 9:19 to go, ART U (1-2) decided that they had better get to work. Czar Robotham got it started by nailing a jumper from beyond the arc, and the Urban Knights continued to chip away. Two free throws from redshirt freshman Alex Carmon and a layup by senior guard Ameer Shamsud-din at the 5:54 mark cut the Pios lead to 13, and despite Gabe Kindred making a free-throw at the end of the half, the Knights lopped a big part of the lead to go into the break down 48-34.

"Well, there's no way you can give up 48 points in a half and expect to be up in a game," said head coach Julius Barnes. "That's been our focus all week in practice, defense. We did a pretty good job at coming out and limiting them, only giving up 29 points in the second half."

Whatever Barnes said at halftime worked for his team, as after the intermission it was all Urban Knights. Maza had back-to-back buckets underneath to cut the lead to ten, and Carmon sunk a jumper and a deep three to make it a two-point game and force an East Bay timeout. Out of the break, Carmon pulled down a rebound and got it to Shamsud-din, who nailed another three-pointer to give the Knights their first lead of the game with 14:23 to go. Czar Robotham lengthened the lead with a layup to cap off a 22-5 run by the Knights to start the second half.

"It's nice when things are clicking the way they did in the second half," said Barnes. "It's a luxury to have guys that can play multiple positions, and we're thankful for that. We still have to continue to build...but I'm please with what we had tonight and I'm hoping to build on that in the future."

It was a brand new ball game with just under 14 minutes to play, and it was up to the Knights defense to show that they could hold down a good offense for the rest of the time. The Pioneers refused to go quietly, never letting ART U get more than that three-point advantage. Cal State East Bay would get back in front a couple of times, but the Knights would tie it up each time. Two free-throws by Vincent Capellino gave the Pios a five-point lead with 6:40 to play, but Aaron Anderson found Fisher for a triple, Maza added a layup for two of his 12 second-half points, and Czar Robotham sunk two free throws to tie the game for a fifth time with exactly 5:00 to go.

The two teams traded buckets for the last five minutes of the game, with East Bay first breaking the tie on a layup from Jacari Whitfield to make it 73-71 Pioneers with 3:50 to go. Fisher and Robotham each split free throws to tie it up against at 73-73, but East Bay took the lead again on a jumper from Gabe Kindred with 2:07 left on the clock. Alex Carmon drove it to the house and hit a floater to knot it up at 75-75, the seventh tie of the game, and then Fisher's layup at the 1:12 mark made it 77-75 Urban Knights lead. In the final minute, the Pioneers missed two three-pointers but the Knights got a big rebound on the defensive glass from Maza with five ticks to go. Maza missed both free throws, but with only 1.6 seconds on the clock, East Bay's attempt to set up a desperation inbound play were foiled, and the Knights walked off the court with the win.

"I spent two years over there [at East Bay]," said Maza, who came over to California from France in 2010. "That was my first American experience so that means a lot, but we're really happy to be a part of the Urban Knights. Coach Barnes really knows his stuff, and to get that 'W', honestly you don't know how that feels. It feels really great. As a team, we were so happy in the locker room. It's priceless."

Five Urban Knights scored in double figures, with Carmon leading the way with 19 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Carmon also chipped in 8 rebounds and was 4-of-4 from the line. Ameer Shamsud-din had 15 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, while Robotham added 14 points and three assists. Maza's double-double was a significant story, notching 14 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and setting a school record with six blocks against Cal State East Bay, who he transferred out of to attend ART U here in 2012-13. Fisher also had a big game for the Knights, finishing with 12 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. ART U outscored the Pioneers 44-34 in the paint, and out-rebounded East Bay 42-35.

"[Maza] came out and he was huge for us," said Barnes. "We knew we were going to need a good game from one of our bigs. Bryan had 12 points and seven rebounds, and he's really a guard playing at the four spot. But Rodrigo was able to come out and have a good game against his former team and we hope that he continues to build on that as well."

East Bay was led by Nick Marshall, who had 16 points and eight rebounds. Gabe Kindred added 12 points, while Jacari Whitfield and Vincent Capellino each had 11 points for the Pioneers.

The Knights will be in action over the holiday break next week, taking on Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday and Northwest Nazarene on Saturday at the Grand Canyon University Holiday Thanksgiving Classic.