Game #29
#8 ART U Urban Knights (23-8) vs. #1 Western Washington Vikings (25-3)
Saturday, March 16, 2013 at 7:30 PM
Bellingham, WA – Sam Carver Gymasium
Live Stats | Live Audio | Live Video

ART U MAKES FIRST NCAA  TOURNAMENT APPEARANCE
Academy of Art University Women's Basketball made history by winning the first Pacific West Conference Tournament Championship this past Saturday and the Urban Knights now look for more having received their automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. ART U, the #8 seed, will play Western Washington, the #1 seed, in the West Regional bracket this Saturday, Mar. 16 at 7:30 PM.
Check out the complete NCAA DII bracket here!

BREAKING DOWN THE BRACKET
Academy of Art begins with Western Washington in the final of four opening round games on Saturday, Mar. 16 at 7:30 PM. The winner of the Knights' first round matchup will face the winner of #4 seeded Chico State (23-5) and #5 seeded Cal State Monterey Bay (19-8).

On the other side of the bracket, UC San Diego (22-10), the #3 seed, will take on #6 seed Grand Canyon (22-8). #2 seeded Simon Fraser (23-5) is paired with #7 seed Northwest Nazarene (20-8).

The semifinal round of the West Region bracket will take place on Monday, Mar. 18 and the third round to determine who advances to the Sweet 16 in San Antonio, TX will be played on Tuesday, Mar. 19. All contests in this bracket of the tournament will take place inside Western Washington's Sam Carver Gymnasium.

LIVE COVERAGE
Live coverage of the NCAA West Regional will be available in the form of Live Stats, Live Audio, and Live Video.

The Academy of Art University Athletics Department will once again partner with Multimedia Communications Department for coverage of the Urban Knights' post-season run. As it has for the past year, Urban Knights Radio will be your home for a live broadcast of all the action with Tim Swartz on the call.


Remember to follow @ARTU_Knights on Twitter and "Like" the Urban Knights on Facebook for score updates, videos, and recaps.

KNIGHT WATCH
After averaging over 70.0 points per game in three contests as part of the PacWest Conference Championship Tournament, Academy of Art University maintained its position as the highest scoring team in the conference. Led senior Jordan Rogers, the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, ART U still ranks 1st overall in both steals per game (15.0 spg) and turnover margin (8.13) as well as 11th overall in NCAA DII in points per game (75.6 ppg). Rogers is averaging 13.5 points per game and recently became the program's single-season scoring leader with 405 points thus far. She paces the team with 50 3-pointers made and also set the new single-season record for free throws made (105) during the PacWest Tournament. Ariel Dale, an extremely versatile senior forward who was named to the PacWest All-Tournament Team, is scoring 12.3 points per game and not only leads the PacWest but ranks 22nd in the country in steals (3.0 spg). Dale also averages 7.0 rebounds (14th in PWC) and 3.3 assists per game (8th in PWC).

Senior Katy Wade remains one of the nation's top shot blockers (11th in NCAA DII) at 2.4 blocks per contest. She has maintained her streak of at least one blocked shot in all 31 games played thus far. Wade's 9.6 rebounds per game ranks 42nd in the country and she long ago set the program's new single-season records in both categories (75 blocks, 299 rebounds). Freshman Regina Camera, a member of the PacWest All-Tournament Team, averages 10.1 points per game and has connected on 45 shots from deep thus far. Freshman Sha'Nice Storey heads into her first NCAA Tournament putting up 9.2 points per game with 49 3-pointers made in 2012-13. Freshman Zoie Sheng currently leads the team in assists (92) and has committed just 54 turnovers as the team's starting point guard. She is one of seven Urban Knights to have more than 45 steals this season.

VERSUS THE VIKINGS

KNIGHTS TAKE 2012-13 PACWEST TOURNAMENT TITLE
Just hours after the Urban Knights Women's Track & Field captured an NCAA Division II National Championship, ART U Women's Basketball came out winners of the inaugural Pacific West Conference Championship Tournament with a 75-49 victory over top-seeded Hawaii Pacific. Academy of Art scored 49 second half points to come back from a halftime deficit and automatically punch their ticket to the first NCAA Tournament in program history.

"This was a historical day for our program and I'm especially proud of our five seniors," head coach LaNay Larson said. "They helped us finish on a nine-game win streak and then to be dominant in that championship game just shows our mentality. The team was ready, we were focused, and we really locked down defensively. Defense and rebounding; that's where it started for us from day one and I thought we did an outstanding job of that tonight."

ROGERS, DALE, WADE RECOGNIZED BY PACWEST
In a regular season where ART U Women's Basketball practically rewrote the program record books and now has a shot to go after its first NCAA National Championship, a trio of seniors were rewarded with Pacific West Conference post-season honors. Jordan Rogers captured a spot on the All-PacWest Second Team, Ariel Dale was a member of the All-PacWest Third Team, and Katy Wade picked up an All-PacWest Team Honorable Mention.

"I'm very proud of the year that Ariel, Jordan and Katy had," Coach Larson said. "The contributions they made to this team and program will forever be remembered."

2012-13 REGULAR SEASON HISTORIC FOR ART U
Signing off on a 2012-13 regular season for the ages on Mar. 2, Academy of Art University Women's Basketball showed it could hang with the country's elite in just its first year as full-fledged members of NCAA Division II. For Coach Larson's encore to a tremendously successful debut last year, ART U not only won 20 games for the first time in program history, but also knocked off two ranked teams in #17 Pitt State and #13 Grand Canyon. Read more about what the Urban Knights accomplished here.