FRESNO, Calif. – The battles between Academy of Art men's basketball and Fresno Pacific have been intensely close during the regular season, so it was not surprise that the first ever postseason meeting would follow the same script, coming down to the latter stages of the second half where the No. 4 seed Urban Knights locked in on defense to go with timely stops leading to ART U's first ever PacWest Championship Tournament win with a 63-57 victory on Wednesday. 

"I am so proud of our guys tonight for taking another step in the history of ART U basketball," said ART U Head Coach Scott Waterman. "We didn't play a great first half, but stuck with it and turned the tide in the second half. Our defense was great all night and when we started to get out in transition, we changed the course of the game."

Facing off for the second consecutive game after these two squads met just four days ago, action was tight from the jump with the added urgency that comes from a postseason battle. A hot start out of the gates for the No. 5 seed Sunbirds (17-10, 11-8 PacWest), seemingly put the Urban Knights (18-11, 13-7 PacWest) on the ropes early as FPU built an 11-point lead over the game's first five minutes.

Layups from junior forward Mike Asante, junior guard Klay Brown and graduate student guard Deang Deang would briefly trim the deficit to just two possessions, but nearly every time the Knights would get a bucket to hang in the game, it seemed there would be an FPU response to keep a cushion.

Defense was stifling from both sides, with neither team above the 30-point mark as both shot below 37 percent. Just as it seemed the Sunbirds were starting to extend their lead with the half drawing near, a three-ball from graduate student forward Adrian Byrd-Jelinek brought the lead down to just four going into the break with FPU in front, 26-22. 

Each team started to find its groove in the beginning of the second frame, swapping 3-pointers while the lead traded hands twice. It was then that the Knights started to climb back into the game, getting an and-one layup from Deang to bring ART U within one possession before unleashing it's best stretch of the night, a 9-0 run that put Academy of Art back in front even if just by a small margin. Started by a layup from sophomore forward Latrell Williams, the run would feature a crucial five points from Deang including a clutch transition trey, while a Williams steal would turn into an easy layup at the other end for Brown. 

Almost as quickly as it came, the ART U lead had disappeared thanks to a pair of easy fast break buckets for the Sunbirds, capped off by an and-one dunk from Darrin Person Jr. But much as they have all season, the Knights showed no quit and reeled off its second 9-0 stretch of the half, jumping back in front of the Sunbirds for good on the second three-ball of the night from Byrd-Jelinek. A second-chance bucket from Williams would precede a steal and subsequent dunk from Brown, which felt like the dagger ART U needed to close out the Sunbirds, icing the game from the free throw line in the final minute to capture the win in the trilogy with FPU. 

ART U returned to its regular-season identity in the second half by forcing turnovers, getting out in transition and playing active defense, collecting 10 steals while adding seven assists in just the second half alone. After hitting on just two of their attempts from beyond the arc in half one, they would double that output in the second period while making 41.2 percent of their total looks from the floor. By game's end, the Knights would end with a total of 22 points off turnovers while scoring 23 points on the fast break.

The 14 steals that Academy of Art would end the game with has raised their season total to 302, as ART U became just the third team in PacWest history to eclipse the 300-steal mark in a single season. 

One of the main reasons that the Knights were able to wrestle the momentum away from the Sunbirds after the first half was the physicality of Williams, fighting for rebound and loose ball en route to his ninth double-double of the year with a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds. Nearly missing out on a double-double of his own was Asante, who snatched a team-best 12 boards while chipping in nine points. Both graduate student guard Joshua Bagley and Deang would also reach double figures offensively, as Bagley added 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting while Deang added key contributions off the bench with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting. 

As reward for winning its first PacWest Championship Tournament contest, the Urban Knights will meet No. 1 seed Point Loma in the semifinals on Friday, Mar. 4 at 2:45 p.m. While the two have never met in the postseason, they did split this year's season series after the Knights took down the Sea Lions 76-74 on their home court back on Dec. 11, 2021, though PLNU would enact its revenge in double overtime when the two sides met again on Jan. 6.