Box Score
Photo Gallery (images by Meg Williams, Sabrina Alger, & Rob Garcia)

San Francisco, CA -- Academy of Art University Women's Basketball sent out its five seniors in style Saturday, playing some of its best defense in program history as part of a 94-31 victory over Notre Dame de Namur inside Kezar Pavilion. After commanding a 36-6 lead in the opening 12 minutes thanks to an 18-0 run, the Urban Knights kept the pressure on. They led by 43 at half, posted the program's new margin of victory, 63 points, and held NDNU to the new low for an ART U opponent (31) as the Knights continue to build upon their new single-season wins record (now 18) and still two games to play.

“We always stress defense and rebounding and I think we did a good job of contesting shots without fouling, getting the board, and then transitioning off of that,” head coach LaNay Larson said. “That's been our focus and we've struggled with it the last couple games, but I think we really came out and followed through with what we wanted to do.”

A pre-game ceremony honoring each of the Academy of Art senior class seemed to provide an early boost as the scoreboard favored the Knights 14-2 out of the gate. All five seniors, Nicol Biesek, Jordan Rogers, Ariel Dale, Katy Wade, and Juliua Fraser, were placed into the starting lineup and together they fueled the offense.

Rogers got it started with a layup on an offensive rebound then Wade found Fraser for a layup in transition and Dale got to the rim for two as well. Wade sent the ball cross-court to Biesek who buried a triple and the lead continued to grow as the ART U defense was repeatedly forcing turnovers.

Midway through the opening period, a new group of Knights comprised entirely of freshmen along with junior Alisa Griggs only added to the margin. They were the ones primarily responsible for the 18-0 run which featured nine points from Jasmin Guinn alone. The Argos not only struggled to get the ball out of the backcourt, but also to make the contested shots they attempted, finishing the half with just 12 points on 8.6 percent shooting (both the second-lowest ever by an ART U opponent).

The difference between the team expanded as more time passed with a layup by sophomore Madeline Martin and four quick by Sha'Nice Storey. Later, Biesek got her hands on a steal and found Rogers in transition and the Knights' halftime lead was a shocking 43 points, 55-12.

In the second half, Academy of Art kept its foot on the gas despite a bit of a rebuttal from NDNU early. ART U was up 67-22 midway through the period then used a 21-4 surge to go up by 62 in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Freshman Regina Camera scored nine of her 11 points during that span which included back-to-back fastbreak layups off a strong defensive rebound by Wade and then a steal by the Portland, OR native.

The end result was a satisfying 94-31 victory which serves as the largest victory margin for Academy of Art in its history. In addition, the Knights tied the program-low with just nine turnovers and posted twice the number of rebounds as their opponent, grabbing 68 in total for the second-highest mark to date.

“I think we always do a good job of hitting the offensive boards. Defensive boards are what we really talked about,” Coach Larson said. “That's just effort and fundamentals. It's something that we really stressed this game. I think we did a good job of dominating the boards on both ends.”

Now up to 18-8 overall and 11-5 in PacWest play, ART U would now own the third seed if the conference tournament started today. For all the contributions of the seniors, it was Guinn who was the leading scorer with career-highs in both points (18) and rebounds (12). Next in line, Rogers added 15 points with three rebounds, two assists, and two steals while the senior tandem of Dale and Biesek were their usual versatile selves.

Dale delivered 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Biesek also offered a season-high 14 points (one shy of her career-high) with six rebounds, four assists, and two steals.

“I just want to perfect making my teammates open and creating to give them a chance to shoot so that we're more of a threat on the floor,” Biesek said. “When we have five or six players score in double figures, it's impossible to stop us. I make that my goal to make sure the ball is distributed and that we're taking good shots because that's when we're able to score as many points as we did tonight.”

Continuing the senior contributions, Wade grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, scored eight points, registered four steals and two blocks, but also dished out a career-high six assists. Fraser was a beast on the boards early on and finished with a season-high seven rebounds. Camera added 11 points off the bench.

“This has been an awesome journey and I'm just so glad I had an opportunity to play under this coaching staff,” Biesek said. “They just really know how to motivate us and to give us the tools that we need to be successful. Fortunately, we learn from our mistakes and, when you come out and play a game like this, it's night and day. It's the most fun when we are playing like a team, forcing that many turnovers, and when people step up who don't play as many minutes, it's a beautiful thing. It was a great senior game for everybody.”

The Argonauts, whose leading scorer was Trisha Malaspina with 10 points, fall to 3-21 overall and 2-14 in PacWest play this season. No other NDNU player scored more than four points and Jasmine Waiters was responsible for nine of the team's 20 turnovers.

Although this is the final home game for ART U this regular season, it is not their last. Next week, the Urban Knights have rematches at Holy Names (Feb. 26) and at Dominican (Mar. 2) before heading to Azusa for the PacWest Conference Tournament (Mar. 7-9).

“We're taking it one game at a time at this point and every game is so important for us,” Coach Larson said. “This game [against NDNU] really gives us confidence going into the end of the season. We have to finish strong in the regular season because right now we're on the verge of receiving an NCAA Tournament bid and heading into the PacWest Tournament so every game matters a lot especially to these five seniors who would love to finish their career not just at the PacWest Tournament, but in the NCAA Tournament. So we have worked hard to put ourselves in a position for that and I'm really proud of how hard they've worked. They deserve it and we're just looking to finish strong.”