HILO, Hawaii – On Thursday night, two top-four Pacific West Conference teams battled until the final buzzer, and it was the Urban Knights who took this one as they put away UH Hilo with a final score of 72-66.

To start the contest, Academy of Art created an early edge, holding what ended up as a tie for the largest lead of the first half (six points) when the Knights had the score set at 10-4 in the first five minutes. Not only would UH Hilo respond to quickly erase the deficit, but they would create a six-point lead of their own on two occasions starting at 23-17. Six lead changes came and went for the two sides before the Knights and Vulcans were squared up at 34-34, but a quick 5-0 push for UH Hilo in the last two minutes of the first half would give them the 39-34 advantage when entering halftime. 

Up eight points after knocking down the first three tallies of the second half, UH Hilo saw ART U not backing down as the Knights steadily erased their deficit as well, and regained the lead after a senior guard Treylon Payne tip-in turned the score to 47-46. With help from the Vulcans shooting 0-for-12 from the arc to start the second half, the Knights eventually broke away from a contest that saw a lead of no more than four for the next seven minutes. Up by as many as eight, ART U disallowed UH Hilo from reentering their grasp down the stretch with help from big time momentum-building dunks from senior forward Quintin Metcalf and junior forward Robbie Armbrester to secure the 72-66 conference victory to improve to 12-6 overall and 8-3 in the PacWest.

"Really proud of our effort tonight," said Head Coach Scott Waterman. "Playing at Hilo is difficult and after a tough first half we responded in the second half on the defensive end holding them to three made field goals."

With 19 different scorers in the contest, all nine of the Knights out on the floor secured a bucket and were led by redshirt junior guard Donovan Vickers (13), while senior guard Rodney Munson (11), senior forward Isaiah Williams (11), and Metcalf (10) all put up double-digit scoring efforts with the latter raking in a team-high eight rebounds and three blocks.

"All nine guys who played tonight contributed to this win," Waterman said. "Now we have a quick turnaround to prepare for Chaminade and another tough Hawaiian road game."

Despite scoring the game-high, Jake Kosakowski (14) could only watch UH Hilo's record fall to 13-8 overall and 6-5 in conference play. 

Closing out the Hawaii road trip in their next contest before the squad returns to their home floor, ART U will take on Chaminade this Saturday, Feb. 1 with a 4 p.m. HT (6 p.m. PT) tip.