Box Score ST. GEORGE, Utah – Academy of Art University Women's Basketball made it three consecutive come-from-behind victories on the road Wednesday with a 70-67 New Year's Eve Pacific West Conference win. After being down by as many as 11 points in the second half, ART U saw junior guard
Zoie Sheng spark a run and the Urban Knights would hold an advantage the final five and a half minutes, fending off the Red Storm down the stretch.
Though junior guard
Regina Camera got ART U on the board to start, that was the only lead her squad would see in the first half as DSU responded by going ahead 5-2. The Red Storm maintained their advantage the rest of the way, but it never reached double digits thanks to timely scores like senior guard
Molly O'Brien's layup to make it 12-9.
Both sides came into Wednesday's contest with nine full days since their previous competition and worked through a three-minute scoring drought as a result. Junior guard
Sha'Nice Storey scored five straight points to keep the Knights within striking distance, but eventually Dixie State pushed a nine-point lead with four minutes and 50 seconds left.
Redshirt junior guard
Vianai Austin and Storey went back-to-back on long range buckets and heading into the final two and a half minutes, DSU found itself up 33-26. That score would carry into halftime after the teams combined to miss all nine shots before the break.
Two Red Storm layups started the second half by giving them an 11-point lead, but junior center
Caron Brown's free throws along with a block ignited the fastbreak for junior guard
Jasmin Guinn. Despite continued production from Dixie State's Taylor Mann, ART U began to whittle the margin down and another transition layup, this one by O'Brien, made it just a three-point game at 39-36.
Dixie State briefly went up by seven, but Sheng quickly erased that margin with a pair of triples and a jumper to give Academy of Art its first lead since just 25 seconds after the opening tip. The run soon became 11-0 as Camera then buried her first 3-pointer of the afternoon. With still more than a half of basketball left, the Knights knew they would need to stay focused.
"Zoie was huge in that stretch," said head coach
LaNay Larson. "She is great at stepping up and making big shots when we need them. Jas was all over the place on both ends of the court and Reg had one of her best games of the season. I thought they were key, but we also had a lot of people off the bench come and play huge roles and really step up and fill some gaps."
The Red Storm fought back with a 7-2 run to tie things up 54-54, but Guinn had 11 of her 16 points in the second period with six of those setting up a 61-54 ART U advantage. Guinn then found Camera twice for shots from beyond the 3-point arc which effectively warded off the DSU comeback attempt. Up 70-67 after a Sheng free throw with 19 seconds left, Academy of Art ended up prevailing though Kayla Miller put up two potentially game-tying in the waning moments.
ART U improves to 9-3 overall and a perfect 4-0 in PacWest play with their fifth straight win and now eight victories in their past nine games. Guinn finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the year after a career-high 11 trips to the foul line. The junior guard also moved into second on the program's career rebounds list as her 467 pass Jessica Nolan's 464.
Camera added 16 points as well, going 3-for-3 from long range including two in the final four minutes. Storey and Sheng contributed 12 points, four rebounds, and three assists apiece.
The Red Storm take their second PacWest loss of the year, dropping to 3-2 in conference play and 4-7 overall. Mann posted an over-sized double-double with 26 points and 19 rebounds while Miller added 14 points despite going 2-for-12 from the 3-point arc.
"We are going to have to make some adjustments and play a lot better and more composed from the start," said Larson. "Hopefully today we got some of the rust off. We feel fortunate to come away with the win against a much improved Dixie team."
Academy of Art will start the New Year by hosting Dominican in a local PacWest matchup at Kezar Pavilion this Saturday, Jan. 3 at 1:00 PM.
