Game #20
ART U Urban Knights (13-6, 9-2 PWC) vs. Dominican Penguins (3-17, 2-8 PWC)
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 5:30 PM
San Francisco, CA – Conlan Rec Center
Live Audio
Live Video
Twitter Updates

Game #21
ART U Urban Knights (13-6, 9-2 PWC) vs. Dixie State Red Storm (14-5, 9-2 PWC)
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 5:00 PM MT
St. George, UT – Burns Arena
Live Stats
Live Audio
Live Video
Twitter Updates

Game #22
ART U Urban Knights (13-6, 9-2 PWC) vs. Grand Canyon Antelopes (17-2, 9-2 PWC)
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 4:30 PM MT
Phoenix, AZ – Antelope Gymnasium
Live Stats
Live Audio
Live Video
Twitter Updates

KNIGHTS TO DO BATTLE WITH PACWEST'S TOP TEAMS ON ROADTRIP
After pushing its win streak to eight games with victories over Dominican and Notre Dame de Namur this past week, Academy of Art University women's basketball remained the hottest team in the Pacific West Conference right now. Highlighting their previous two wins was a PacWest record 82-rebound performance in the Jan. 30 contest against Dominican. Currently amid a four-way tie for the top spot in the PacWest standings, ART U plays its final road games of the season this week, stopping at Dominican, Dixie State, and finally No. 15 Grand Canyon.

OPENING TIP
This week, ART U will make a quick trip to San Rafael, CA for a Feb. 7 contest against Dominican inside Clonan Rec Center. Tipoff for that game is set for 5:30 PM. The week's second game pits the Knights against Dixie State in St. George, UT on Saturday, Feb. 11. That matchup is scheduled for 5:00 PM MT (4:00 PM PST) inside Burns Arena. The final stop on the trip will be at Grand Canyon's Antelope Gymnasium on Monday, Feb. 13 with a 4:30 PM MT (3:30 PM PST) start time. Live Stats, Live Audio, Live Video and Twitter updates will be available for these games (see above). Remember to check @UrbanKnightNews on Twitter for score updates and recaps. Also become a fan of the Knights on Facebook by 'Like'-ing the Urban Knights page.

CRUNCHING THE CAPTAINS' NUMBERS
Just a sophomore, forward Alisa Griggs entered the ART U record books with a special performance against Dominican this past week. She earned a PacWest Weekly Top 10 Honor Roll selection for her 23-rebound game which ties her for second in the PacWest single game record books. Griggs finds herself ranked third in rebounding in the conference while she also averages a team-high 13.4 points per game. Senior guard Devin London did a little bit of everything in the two Urban Knight victories with averages of 13.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.5 steals. She is second behind teammate Ariel Dale in the PacWest rankings for steals per game (2.6 spg). Senior guard Lorraine Etchell, who just broke the 800-point barrier and continues to build upon her program record of career points, took second place in steals (100) this past week and is on the verge of assuming possession of a second place ranking in several other career categories. She needs four more blocks, and 12 assists to move on up.

KNIGHT WATCH
After two outings where they dominated the boards, Academy of Art now ranks first in the PacWest in both offensive (18.2) and defensive (28.5) rebounds per game as well as first in steals per game (12.3), second in blocked shots per game (4.2), third in assists per game (14.3), and fourth in both points per game (68.4). The junior tandem of forward Ariel Dale and guard Nicol Biesek were both named to the PacWest Weekly Top 10 Honor Roll after Dale nearly had a triple-double and Biesek pulled 14 rebounds against Dominican. Dale is the conference leader in steals per game (2.7) as well as one of the Top 30 scorers (7.5 ppg) and Top 12 rebounders (5.8 rpg). Biesek, who became ART U's single season blocks record holder with her 19th rejection against NDNU, ranks fifth in the PacWest in both blocks (1.0 bpg) and assists per game (2.9 spg). Junior center Juliua Fraser was also among the highlights this past week with a career-high 14 rebounds (six offensive) off the bench at Notre Dame de Namur. That mark ranks sixth in Urban Knights history.

DOMINICAN DO-OVER
In the teams' Jan. 30 contest, Academy of Art not only continued its dominance over Dominican, but did so in convincing fashion. The Urban Knights moved to 6-0 against the Penguins with a 90-46 final in which ART U went on two big runs in the first half and set the new PacWest rebounding record for the modern era with 82 boards. Since that matchup, Dominican fell to NDNU 67-50 on Feb. 4 (a team they had previously defeated 66-48 on Jan. 28) despite a balanced scoring attack in which five Penguins posted at least eight points apiece. Kala Valentine is the squad's high scorer (10.6 ppg) and had a team-high 16 points in the previous contest against Academy of Art. Kimi Nakamura and Ariana Flynn each average 7.1 points per game in support of Valentine.

RED STORM REMATCH
It was an exciting upset victory for head coach LaNay Larson (former Dixie State assistant coach) when these two teams met back in San Francisco on Jan. 3. The Urban Knights got the better of the Red Storm in a 60-59 final that came thanks to a memorable final 30 seconds in which Dale scored the game-winner and blocked DSC's final attempt. Dixie State has enjoyed two separate win streaks since that time (one of three games and the current one at five), separated only by a 65-49 loss at the hands of Grand Canyon. Led by back-to-back 20+ point games by Becca Thomas, who had the team-high 16 points last time against ART U, Dixie has most recently defeated Chaminade (86-49 on Feb. 1) and BYU-Hawaii (80-72 on Feb. 4) while in Hawaii. The Red Storm are currently and much of that comes from a .324 field goal percentage from beyond the three-point arc. Sheila Adams, who averages 2.6 3-pointers made per game, is the DSC leading scorer at 14.6 points per game. Two other Dixie State players average over 10 points per game including Thomas (11.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and Erica Hayes (11.6 ppg). The series between the two teams favors Dixie 4-1, but the ART U victory did come this season. The Red Storm complete their Hawaii roadtrip with a Feb. 6 contest against Hawaii Pacific before returning home to face the Knights.

AFTER THE ANTELOPES
As the only team in the PacWest to be recognized with a national ranking throughout the season, No. 15 Grand Canyon has lived up to the hype, going 17-2 thus far. However, Hawaii-Hilo threatened to make it three losses when the Antelopes were forced into overtime 52-52 on Feb. 4. GCU would go on to pull out a 65-59 victory in the extra period with Sheila Washington coming off the bench to make many of the key plays down the stretch. To this point, the only two losses for Grand Canyon this season were a 63-59 defeat at NDNU to start PacWest play and a 70-59 result in front of Antelope Gym's third-largest crowd of the year. Like ART U, GCU swept all four Hawaii schools to be currently riding a four-game win streak. Maylinn Smith is the top offensive weapon for Grand Canyon, averaging 16.2 points per game (third-most in the PacWest) while Jallisa Butler ranks second in the conference in rebounds (10.3 rpg). This will be the first meeting of the Knights and Antelopes with GCU holding a 4-0 edge historically. The 'Lopes will quickly travel to Cal Baptist on Feb. 11 before coming home to take on Academy of Art.

ART U WIN STREAK PUSHED TO EIGHT GAMES AFTER 2-0 WEEK
The victories kept coming for Academy of Art University women's basketball this past week with a dominant 90-46 win over Dominican at Kezar Pavilion (Jan. 30) followed by a 70-61 result at NDNU (Feb. 2). Matching up with the Penguins, ART U owned the boards throughout the game, finishing with 82 rebounds in total and 51 more than DUC. Two separate runs in the first half, one 15-4 to start the contest and another of 18-0, enabled the Urban Knights to take a 30-point halftime lead and go on to increase that margin in the second period. As mentioned previously, Griggs set a new ART U single game record with 23 rebounds and 21 points to tie her career-high. Belmont, CA was the next game's location where both Academy of Art and Notre Dame de Namur struggled offensively in the first half. However, a 7-0 first half push which later resulted in the Knights' 10-point halftime advantage ended up being the difference. NDNU came within one point on multiple occasions in the second period, but ART U refused to relinquish its lead and held on for the win.

LOOKING AHEAD
Following this final out-of-state roadtrip, the Urban Knights will be in their home stretch. Four more contests will remain and all will take place at ART U's home facility of Kezar Pavilion. Matchups include Hawaii Pacific (Feb. 21), Hawaii-Hilo (Feb. 23), Grand Canyon (Feb. 25), and Notre Dame de Namur (Mar. 3).