HAYWARD, Calif. – Academy of Art University women's basketball saw its relentless defense turn into offense more often than not Friday afternoon as the Urban Knights defeated Cal State Monterey Bay 88-68 inside Pioneer Gym for Cal State East Bay's CCAA/PacWest Thanksgiving Shootout. As part of ART U's 29 points off turnovers, senior guard
Jasmin Guinn poured in a new program scoring record and career-high 35 points, several coming during runs of 13-0 and 10-0 to finish each of the first two quarters.
"I think getting our first 20-point win of the season today is a definite confidence booster," said Guinn. "We are getting so much better as a team as the season progresses, and I think today was a telling victory of how hard we've been working. As for the scoring record, it felt amazing doing it in front of my entire family because they've really been supportive and have taught me so many things about the game that have allowed me to do some of the things I'm doing."
Despite an early 16-13 Otters advantage, Academy of Art used free throws by junior forward
Priscilla Mora to initiate a 13-0 surge featuring four buckets inside the painted area. ART U carried a 26-16 lead by the end of the first quarter after Guinn converted a layup with four seconds on the clock and, quickly into the second, she found senior guard
Regina Camera for a 3-pointer to keep the pressure on.
CSUMB whittled the margin down to five points midway through the second quarter, but nine straight from Guinn returned the difference to double digits. Senior guard
Zoie Sheng then found Guinn for seven more as the lead continued to grow and, soon a layup by junior forward
Pre'Franz Dominick a 10-0 run culminating in junior guard
Irene Aranda's triple in the final minute. Guinn would finish the quarter with a new program record 16 points and four steals leading to the Urban Knights' 53-29 halftime advantage.
"I feel like our defense was a lot better and we always talk about our defense feeding our offense," said head coach
LaNay Larson. "We make some adjustments with our zone in practice to be more aggressive after our Dominguez Hills game and I thought we got a couple of easy baskets to start with, moved the ball really well, and did a good job of playing team basketball today."
Though CSUMB out-scored Academy of Art 20-16 in the third quarter, the ART U lead only briefly dipped below 20 points with senior guard
Regina Camera and senior guard
Sha'Nice Storey catching fire offensively. The Knights were a perfect 7-of-7 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, sealing their highest margin of victory this year with an 88-68 win.
Rising to 5-4 overall, ART U had Guinn achieve the new program scoring record by four points with her 35 on the afternoon. The mark surpassed Storey's 31 points originally set at Chaminade on
Jan. 9, 2013 as well as Guinn's own 31 versus Azusa Pacific on
Mar. 5, 2015 as part of the opening round of last year's PacWest Championship Tournament. Guinn went 14-for-23 from the field, added six free throws, nine rebounds, and five steals in 39 minutes of action. The 14 made field goals were also a program record.
"I've spent a lot of hours in the gym outside of practice perfecting moves with my dad and my brothers that have escalated my game and it's a very rewarding thing to see," said Guinn. "I also have to credit Zoie because she did an excellent job today of drawing the defense and finding the open person. A lot of my points came from her assists."
Sheng passed out a career-high 10 assists to go with eight points and seven rebounds while Camera contributed 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting and eight rebounds. Storey added nine points and Dominick posted eight points in her first career start.
Cal State Monterey Bay, now 3-2 on the year, got a team-high 17 points from Jazmine Johnson along with 14 points from McKenna Hill.
Academy of Art will return to Pioneer Gym tomorrow, Nov. 28, to play CCAA/PacWest Thanksgiving Shootout host Cal State East Bay at 4 p.m. CSUEB defeated Notre Dame de Namur 68-51 following ART U's game on Friday.
"East Bay is going be a really tough game for us," said Larson. "I think if we play the way we did today and even step it up a little bit as far as the effort and urgency, it could be a nice weekend for us."
