Box Score
Oakland, Calif. (1/6/09) -- Riding high off of two solid wins against American Sports University and Holy Names, the Men's Basketball team showed their growth in a 65-59 victory over Holy Names on Tuesday. The Urban Knights faced the Holy Names Hawks for the third time in one week and the Knights capped off the three-game series, 2-1.
Sophomore guard
Weleh Dennis had yet another amazing performance, leading the Knights with a career-high 33 points and shooting 77% (14-of-18) from the free throw line. Freshman forward
Lorenzo Dobson was also a key player in Tuesday's game, finishing the night with a team-high eleven rebounds.
The Knights came out strong against the Hawks, determined to break the 1-1 series tie. Dennis displayed his leadership and maturity, finishing the first half with 22 points, two assists and two rebounds. Sophomore guard Philip Samuel, who had the best statistical game of his career in the last match-up against the Hawks, finished the first half with seven points and helped the Knights go up by nine at the half, 44-33.
Holy Names played a strong first half but unfortunately were unable to connect on many shots from the floor. Robert Christensen and Jonathan Kargas led the Hawks in scoring, finishing the first half with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Kargas went 2-of-3 from the 3-point line while the Hawks finished a disappointing 3-of-11 overall from the arc at the half.
The second half of the game was an all-out battle between the Hawks and the Urban Knights. Down by nine to start the second period, Holy Names University came out strong and guarded the post well against the Knights. However, Hawks Head Coach Dennis Jones was ejected from the game after arguing incessantly with the referee. Coach Jones' ejection, which came with about nine minutes left to play, became a catalyst for the Knights. Dennis stepped up and took charge of his team, creating several scoring opportunities for himself to solidify the win for the Urban Knights.
Tuesday's game between the Knights and the Hawks was clearly a battle of strength and determination and fortunately for AAU, the Urban Knights came out on top, defeating the Hawks by a small margin. The Urban Knights record improved to 3-15 overall while Holy Names University fell to 3-14 overall.
Up next for the Academy of Art University Men's Basketball team is a double-header with the Women's team against Cal State East Bay on January 17th at Kezar Pavilion. Tip-off for the Women's team starts at 5:30pm while the Men's game will commence at 7:30pm.
