Box Score
San Francisco, CA -- On a dark and chilly Friday night in the middle of winter, the Urban Knights were heating up. And when they get hot, they can really light up the scoreboard as they did while setting a program record in scoring with a 91-82 victory over The Master's College at Kezar Pavilion.
"I'm just proud of our guys because we've never stopped working," said head coach Mark Sembrowich. "It's easy to say that things haven't worked out for us, but our guys have kept working. Sometimes it's lonely and it's hard, but none of them have ever thought of backing down. I think we're still getting better as the season goes on."
The Knights (2-9) shot very well again, almost breaking the 50% mark while putting up a 30-for-51 effort from the field. William Overton, Jr. had a double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds and led a quartet of Knights who broke the ten-point barrier in scoring. Academy of Art started scoring early and often, and went on a 15-4 run to start the second half and push the lead to 13. The Knights led by as much as 19 points after a 3-pointer from Ameer Shamsud-din, and fought off the Mustangs' attempt to slow the game down to eventually win by nine.
"We needed all of those points," Sembrowich said. "We did what we could and they started to foul early, which meant we were going to put a lot of points up. Everyone contributed, and that's what we need to do to win games."
The game was close at halftime, with the Knights holding a slim 39-36 lead at the break. The two teams traded baskets out of the locker room, but the aforementioned 15-4 run that pushed the lead to double-digits gave the Knights just enough space to dig in and fight off the Mustangs attack. The lead stayed over 10 until the three-minute mark, but even then The Master's just couldn't stop the Knights from the line.
Shamsud-din got hot in the second half and finished with 17 points and seven assists, Czar Robotham had 15 points and eight assists, and freshman Aaron Anderson chipped in 13 points to set a career-high. Hunter Hayden came off the bench and had seven points and 11 rebounds in 14 minutes, including another clutch night at the free-throw line, sinking all three attempts down the stretch as The Master's started to foul.
The Urban Knights had Hayden and Noah Koné-Nelson in foul trouble early, forcing Coach Sembrowich to get creative. He did just that, and at one point had five guards on the floor, the tallest of which being Shamsud-din at 6'2. But the Knights still found a way to get 36 points in the paint, 22 in the first half alone.
"We fought, and we did what we had to do," Sembrowich said. "We didn't back down and it actually worked out to be pretty successful. It's about the heart and the effort that the guys bring, and our team has a lot of that, and we saw the end result tonight against a good team."
Anderson was seemingly everywhere, and has become one of ART U's top options off the bench. Against The Master's, the San Francisco native also contributed three assists, three steals, four rebounds, and a block. Anderson, who was known as a defense-first type guard at Riordan High School, was 3-for-6 from the field and also made 7 of 8 from the free throw line. At one point, he was at the line six times in a span of 40 seconds, making five of those shots from the charity stripe.
"We got a huge contribution tonight off the bench from Aaron," said Sembrowich. "We needed him and he stepped up. I'm really pleased with what he was able to do and he's a hard worker. He's getting better, and he's earning more and more minutes, and it's just helping our team."
The Mustangs (10-3) decided to start fouling the Knights down double-digits with about five minutes left, and ART U made them pay, making 24 free throws in the second half alone to seal the game. As the game slowed down, it seemed very possible for the Knights to lose the momentum they had built up, but solid performances by Shamsud-din, Overton, Anderson, who all had nine points in the second half, secured the win for Academy of Art.
Academy of Art moved the ball around extremely well, notching a program-high 24 assists on their 30 field goals. Their stout defense also led to 19 turnovers by the Mustangs and the Knights outscored The Master's 14-2 on the fast break. The 91 points was a program high, topping their 87-point effort against Holy Names in 2009, and also the two times that the put up 86 points in 2010, once against Menlo and the other against Bethany.
"We moved the ball around really well," Sembrowich said. "It found the open guy for the most part and those were the guys taking the shots. I'm very proud of how we played tonight, and we're just going to keep improving, every game."
The Urban Knights will continue to play throughout the winter break from school, starting their PacWest slate against Dixie State on Jan. 3rd and then taking on Cal Baptist again on Jan. 5th, with both games being played at Kezar Pavilion.
