Box Score SAN FRANCISCO – ART U Women's Basketball made it three consecutive victories with an important 76-68 Pacific West Conference victory over California Baptist on Tuesday night inside Kezar Pavilion. In a game that saw 34 fast break points, a season-high 17 steals for Academy of Art, and flowed at a quick pace, the Urban Knights executed down the stretch to seal another win.
An evenly played first six minutes was eventually broken up by a 6-0 run from the Urban Knights all in the paint. Junior guard
Zoie Sheng opened with a layup and soon it was junior forward
Krystal Forthan hitting the jumper followed by a fastbreak layup for junior guard
Jasmin Guinn. The response, however, was an 11-0 run by the Lancers to put them up 19-14.
CBU would rise ahead by as many as nine (29-20), but Academy of Art surged back with a 13-2 burst to close the half. It began with a tough mid-range jumper by Sheng and was later capped by Guinn finding senior guard
Molly O'Brien in the corner for the triple with 33 seconds left. At the intermission, ART U had reclaimed the lead 33-31.
The Knights and Lancers traded triples early in the second half before a 7-0 Knights run was finished off by Sheng finding junior guard
Sha'Nice Storey for a jumper. Academy of Art held the advantage only briefly as California Baptist fought back with its own 7-0 push shortly thereafter. The Lancers' largest lead of the second period then came when Megan Brown hit a jumper to make it 64-58 CBU with six minutes and 18 seconds left.
Over the next two minutes, ART U cut the margin down, tying the contest on a fastbreak layup by O'Brien off a steal by junior center
Caron Brown. Though California Baptist made a pair of baskets to once again tie things up 68-68, those turned out to be their final points of the game. The final 2:30 belonged to Academy of Art with free throws coming from Guinn, Storey, and Sheng as well as a Forthan layup to collectively sealed the victory.
Academy of Art wins its third consecutive game to improve to 7-3 overall and 2-0 in PacWest play. Sheng finished with a game-high 19 points on 7-for-15 shooting from the field as well as four steals. Forthan added 14 points and nine rebounds while O'Brien contributed 11 points off the bench.
California Baptist takes just its second loss of the year (8-2) and its first conference defeat (1-1) despite a 14-point, 17-rebound performance from Darsha Burnside off the bench.
The Urban Knights are back in action this Saturday, hosting Azusa Pacific inside Kezar Pavilion at 1:00 PM.
