Box Score

San Rafeal, CA --- The Academy of Art women's basketball team staved off a late game comeback by fellow Bay Area Pacific West opponent, Dominican University, Friday evening at the Conlan Center to secure the 80-71 victory. Junior Nicole DeRosier led the Urban Knights offensively for the second straight game, going for 19 points. The win marks ART U's eighth conference victory and 10th overall. "I am so glad that we took care of business tonight. The game ebbed and flowed and I was happy that we were able to stay on top of them for a full 40 minutes," said Head Coach Lindsey Yamasaki.

The Urban Knight women started the contest with a 10-0 run. Jessica Nolan, Verity Peets and Nicole DeRosier each played a hand in ART U's early hot streak. Even though the Urban Knights maintained a sizeable lead over the Penguins (7-18 overall/5-10 PWC) for the entire half, Dominican made a few runs at the Urban Knights and gradually chipped away at their lead. Dominican forced the first tie of the game with 5:26 remaining in the half. ART U, however, responded by outscoring the Penguins 18-3 to close the half. Alisa Griggs combined for nine of the final 18 Urban Knights' points which gave ART U a 42-27 halftime lead.

"Foul trouble was an issue for some of our starters tonight and it was nice to have Griggs step in and bear a larger load," said Yamasaki. "The good thing [for us] about having a lot of players in the rotation, is that they are ready to play when you call in them. Griggs was ready tonight and it helped us significantly!" exclaimed Yamasaki.

The Urban Knights used 11 bench points in the second half to maintain their lead over the Penguins. Although Dominican brought the score to within six points on two separate occasions, ART U remained focused and kept the Penguins at bay. With each run the Dominican University Lady Penguins threw at the Urban Knights Coach Yamasaki and her ball club would counter it with a run of their own. ART U saw their lead slip to six points with less than a minute to play in the contest, but it was too little too late as the Academy of Art women held on for the 80-71 victory.

Tammy Brawner had 16 points for the Penguins. While Kelsey Janusch added 15 points of her own. Shawna Bryant and Melissa Wise each added nine points in the loss.

Junior guard Nicole DeRosier led ART U with 19 points. The junior was 6-of-11 from the floor and 4-of-7 from downtown. Freshman Alisa Griggs poured in a career high 18 points against the Penguins. Griggs was 10-11 from the free-throw line and a perfect 4-of-4 from the floor. Senior forward and Pacific West Player of the Week Jessica Nolan earned yet another double-double thanks to a 16-point and 10-rebound performance. Verity Peets added 11 points in the win. As a team, the Urban Knights out-rebounded the Penguins 36-28 and shot 52.1%  for the game compared to the Penguins' 38.6%.

The Urban Knights finish the season on Thursday, March 3 with a home game against Notre Dame de Namur University. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Kezar Pavilion.