Box Score
Santa Clarita, Calif. -- (11/21/08) The Urban Knights traveled to Southern California Friday morning to play a pair of games Friday evening and Saturday afternoon against top Golden State Athletic Conference members. The Master's College was the first stop on the Knights trip
. Senior forward Levalasi Key cut the Mustang's lead to three on a lay up with 4:33 remaining in the game. But then within 30 seconds Lady mustang Annie Gillespie finished a three-point play with 3:54 remaining to trigger a late 14-2 run as The Master's College pulled away to beat the Academy of Art 70-55 Friday evening in Bross Gym. With the loss the Urban Knights fall to 0-3 and the Mustangs have reeled off five straight victories, improving to 5-2.
The Urban Knights were not expected to compete with the well established Mustang team, but instead proved to be no laughing matter as they showed great athleticism and tenacity. The fledgling Urban Knights from San Francisco made it a game of great concern for the hosts, sticking around until the final four minutes of play.
The Mustangs surged to an early 5-1 lead on a 3-pointer by Amanda DuRocher with 18:14 left in the first half. But, the Knights struck back with five straight points to take the lead on a 3-pointer by Key, setting up a back-and-forth struggle over the next 7½ minutes. During that span, the lead switched hands six times and four ties were produced.The Knights took their biggest lead of the night (four points) on a 3-pointer by junior point guard Sondra Stilwell with nine minutes to go in the first.
The Urban Knights Knights stayed in front until a three-point play by Gillespie, part of a 13-0 run, put the Mustangs ahead to stay at the 8:27 mark. During the run, the Knights were kept scoreless for over eight minutes and went into the half down 30-21.
The Knights seemed to go stagnant when the Mustangs threw a 2-3 trapping zone on them. The zone in combination with their pressing, and trapping defense took its toll on the Knights, who turned the ball over 17 times in the first half and shot only 23 percent from the field.
The Mustangs' garnered their first double-digit leads of the evening in the opening four minutes of the second half but the Knights fought their way back into the contest, a three-point play by Key sparked an 8-1 spurt to slice a 10-point deficit to three (43-40) with 11:18 left to play.
Quickly after the run the Mustangs answered back, bumping the lead back to nine. However, the Knights weren't ready to lay down just yet as they put a final scare into the Mustangs. Trailing 55-45 with 7:09 showing on the clock, the Knights ran off six straight points and eight of the next nine to draw within 56-53 on a Key layup just 2½ minutes later.
Holding the Knights scoreless over the next two-plus minutes, the Mustangs began with an 8-0 run for a 64-53 lead. After the Knights stopped the spurt with a bucket, the Mustangs closed things out by scoring the game's final six points.
For the Mustangs Gillespie led all scorers with 19 points, including a 10-11 effort from the line, and yanked down a team-high 10 rebounds. DuRocher, who drained four 3-pointers, added 18 points and Nanninga chipped in with 14 more.
For the Urban Knights, Key led the team with 18 points and 13 rebounds while also adding two steals, junior guard Jacqui Heck added 14 points on 5-11 shooting, and Stilwell rounded out the group adding nine points, five assists and five steals on the night.
Box Score
Costa Mesa, Calif. (11/21/08) -- The Urban Knights traveled to Costa Mesa, CA after battling with the Mustangs of Master's College to take on the defending NAIA National Champions of Vanguard University in their home opener. The Lions made 15 3-pointers en route to a 95-56 victory as junior Rachel Copeland, who was virtually unstoppable, pumped in 31 points to lead the hosts.
Vanguard came out firing from the game-opening tip-off with Copeland nailing her first two treys of the day less than a minute into the game. However, the the visiting Urban Knights countered with some solid shooting of their own, tying the game 10-10 on an offensive rebound and put-back by senior forward Levalasi Key 3:05 into the game. The Urban Knights lost the lead on a jumper by Molly Pfohl which continued them on a 10-point run. Academy of Art University cut Vanguard's cushion to single digits (33-24) with a trey by junior guard Jacqui Heck with 7:43 left in the period, but that, unfortunately, would be as close as the Urban Knights would get. The Lions tallied 10 3-pointers before intermission while building a 19-point lead over the Urban Knights, 54-35.
The Urban Knights were able to cool the Lions off a little after the halftime break, but it was too little too late as the Urban Knights dropped from 47.7 percent shooting in the first half to 20 percent in the second half of play. Vanguard started the second half with a 22-4 run with the four lone points coming off a free throw by Heck and a 3-pointer by junior guard Caprice Hall early in the half, the 22-4 run stretched the gap to 37 points (76-39) in the first 10 minutes of the period. Junior Nondi Johnson gave Vanguard its biggest lead of the game, 95-48, with a jumper in the paint with 2:37 left to play, but AAU scored the final eight points of the game to slice VU's spread to a 95-56 final score.
Freshman point guard Lorraine Etchell led the Urban Knights with 11 points and junior point guard Sondra Stilwell tossed out seven assists for the visitors who dip to 0-4 with the loss.
The Urban Knights travel next week to Turlock, CA as they take part in the Cal State Stanislaus Thanksgiving Tournament. They will take on the host Cal State Stanisluas Warriors on Friday at 2:30pm and the Cal State Monterey Bay Otters 12:30pm Saturday afternoon.
