ATHERTON, Calif. – The first Pacific West Conference game for Academy of Art men's basketball ended with the Urban Knights not only collecting a victory over Azusa Pacific on Thursday, but doing so with a dominant second period and a program record in the process, all ending with a 89-65 final score.
"What a great way to start PacWest Conference play tonight," said ART U Head Coach Scott Waterman. "I was really impressed with our defensive effort and to force 32 turnovers, and to record 23 steals is a testament to our focus on our defensive game plan. APU is a really good team and we were able to take them out of what they wanted to do."
The game remained close for most of the opening 20 minutes, with six lead changes in the first half coming and going. All eight members of the Knights that saw the court scored a basket in the starting frame, with senior forward Latrell Williams leading the way (10).
As a team, the squad shot a solid 55.9 percent in the half while collecting 10 steals, and finally found the run they were looking for as they neared the final minutes of the frame, surging ahead with a 14-4 push in the last three minutes. Junior forward Isaiah Williams racked up six of the Knights' points with junior guard Rodney Munson and junior guard Allen Taylor adding on a triple each. ART U now saw themselves with an 11-point lead as they entered the half, up 42-31.
After a made jumper by the Cougars' George Reidy to start off the second half, the Knights came out firing. 16 straight points was the answer for Academy of Art, as the team expanded their lead to 25 and set themselves apart while collecting six more steals. A few minutes later, the Knights saw themselves up 77-39 as they had APU locked up while continuing to add on buckets.
The last 10 minutes dwindled down and the victory was secured with a final score of 89-65 for ART U. Azusa Pacific, who was first in the PacWest Preseason Poll, now drops to 1-7 overall while the second-place team in the poll, the Knights, improve to 4-3 and now 1-0 in conference play.
Latrell Williams finished off the game with a career-high 23 points to lead ART U with junior forward Jamal Fuller (21) right there with him. The pair shot 66 percent from the field collectively as Latrell Williams also led the team in rebounds (7), while Fuller did in steals (6) to join six others in tying the program record. After a week that saw junior guard Treylon Payne named the PacWest Defender of the Week, he notched five more steals in the contest and now leads the conference in steals per game (2.4).
Every member of the Knights recorded at least one take-away, with their 23 steals total now being the new ART U program record for a game, surpassing the previous high of 20 achieved on Jan. 15, 2022 at Hawaii Pacific.
"There is still room for growth and we can't let our guard down with a really good Chaminade team coming to San Francisco on Sunday," Waterman said.
Academy of Art will return to the court in three days for another conference matchup, as the Knights play host to Chaminade on Sunday, Dec. 10 at 3:30 p.m at Kezar Pavilion.
