Box Score
San Francisco, CA -- On Thursday night the Academy of Art University men's basketball team took on Bay Bridge rival Holy Names, and down the stretch it was almost a replay of their game last month in Oakland, a game that the Hawks tied up late and eventually won in overtime. But tonight belonged to the Knights, as their defense held strong and they made clutch shots, holding on to win a nailbiter 75-72. Alexis Moore had a team-high 24 points and also dished out six assists, as the Knights also made over 70 percent of their free throws in the second half to secure the win.

"We were able to duplicate what we did Saturday against Notre Dame, and that was to get after it defensively," said head coach Julius Barnes. "We knew Crum was going to come in and he was going to be the catalyst for a lot of things they try to do,  and although he had 25 [points] and got to the free-throw line a lot, but I think the guys who were defending him, Garland Vinson for one, and Aaron Anderson, did a really good job on him."

The Knights (6-16, 4-11 PacWest) started off strong, leading 11-8 at the first media timeout. Holy Names tied it up and the two teams went back and forth, with the Hawks taking a short lead at 16-15, but free throws from Aaron Anderson gave the Knights the lead back with 10:15 to go in the first half. Academy of Art would be in control from then on, and despite their bigs getting into foul trouble they continued to press on the defensive end. The Knights would extend their lead to five on free throws by Moore, and then later get the margin to eight when Moore hit a jumper with 2:49 to play. Dalton Dale and Julian Clark made back-to-back buckets for the Hawks (5-18, 4-11 PacWest), but Moore hit a fading jumper at the buzzer that put the Knights up 33-27 at halftime.

Holy Names started the second half with a three-point play by Joshua Crum that cut the lead to three points, but the Knights staved off the comeback again and again. Back-to-back buckets by Moore made it a 37-30 ballgame, and Alex Carmon made it 39-32 with 16:42 left. That lead would get into double digits as Carmon laid it in with 13:43 on the clock to make it 46-35. The Hawks trimmed the lead to six on a layup from Terrance Swayne with 10:27 left, but it was Moore who kept coming up with the big shots, making a three-pointer to make it 60-48 with 7:13 to go, and it looked like the Knights could coast to victory.

But the Hawks had other ideas, and just like their onslaught back in January, they started to chip away in the final five minutes. After a layup from Aaron Aikman made it 66-59, Holy Names took a timeout, and proceeded over the next three possesssions to make it 68-62. Moore unfortunately picked up a technical foul and a personal on the same play, and the Hawks made three of four free throws to cut it to a one-possession game with just over two minutes to play.  

More Knights stepped up in the final 120 seconds, as Carmon pushed it to a five-point lead. The defense then forced a shot-clock violation with only a minute to play, and after the Hawks fouled to stop the clock, Moore split a pair of free throws. After Joshua Crum made both of his from the charit y stripe, Moore split another set of free throws with 14 seconds left to make it 72-68. The Hawks weren't done, however, as a touch foul sent Crum to the line again. Rodrigo Maza followed by making both of his free throws, but with seven seconds left, Josh Kasim hit a three-pointer to make it 74-72. Maza then had a rare miss from the line but made his final free throw with four seconds and change on the clock, and after the inbounds play, Dorn missed what would have been a game-tying three, and the Knights came away victorious.

"Aside from the mental lapse we had at the end, we showed some poise," said Barnes. "The guys didn't get rattled, they still came down, they made stops when they had to, we scored buckets when we had to, and guys just made plays. I think that was the difference tonight."

Moore finished with 24 points, 13 of which coming in the second half, while Carmon had 11 in the half to finish with 13 points and nine rebounds. Maza had nine of his 13 points in the second half, all of which came from the free-throw line, as he was 9-for-10 from the stripe and didn't shoot once from the field. Aikman would also finish in double digits with 16 points, shooting 80 percent (8-for-10) from the field, and is now shooting 58 percent on the season. Joshua Crum had 25 points for the Hawks, making 15 of 18 free throws, while Kasim had 17 points.

The Urban Knights have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the PacWest Championship Tournament yet, and will make things interesting down the stretch. They'll travel to Belmont to take on Notre Dame de Namur, who they defeated last week at home, and then will head to Fresno Pacific next Monday. Their next home game is February 22nd against Dixie State.