OAKLAND, Calif. – Academy of Art men's basketball raced out to an 11-0 lead against Holy Names and never looked back, as ART U never trailed in the contest and earned its second Pacific West Conference win over HNU in as many games by a 78-69 final, setting a new program-record with their 13th victory this season. 

"Playing a team twice in three days is definitely a challenge and I am glad our guys met it," said ART U Head Coach Scott Waterman. "It wasn't the cleanest of games, but again down the stretch we got stops when it mattered. Throughout the night, I loved how well we rebounded the ball and we need to continue to do that. However, we have to keep coming together as a unit, as we have a quick turnaround to play a good Hilo team on Sunday."

Similar to their first meeting, the Urban Knights (14-10, 9-6 PacWest) established a comfortable lead throughout the majority of the first half only to see the Hawks (5-17, 3-11 PacWest) draw close by the end. In addition to breaking the program record of 12 wins that they had done twice before (2017-18 and 2019-20), this marked the eighth consecutive win over Holy Names, with five of those victories coming at Tobin Gymnasium. 

ART U slowly but surely built its lead throughout the majority of the first half, at one point leading by as many by 17 but had the lead trimmed to 35-25 at the break. It was in the second frame where things would get close, with the Hawks coming within three points on three different occasions, but each time they would draw close ART U would snuff out their momentum. 

Down the stretch it was junior forward Mike Asante leading the charge, as he poured in 14 second-half points with most coming in the final 10 minutes to help ART U ice the game. He would end with a season-high 23 points and a team-best 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season, as well as three assists. Overall ART U shot 45.6 percent from the field, their best night shooting since they hit 46.0 percent of their looks against Concordia on Jan. 8.

Two other Urban Knights would end the action in double figures, as graduate student guard Joshua Bagley chipped in 13 points of his own to go with three assists while graduate student forward Adrian Byrd-Jelinek added 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. Sophomore forward Latrell Williams also reached double-digit rebounds with 10, helping ART U reach the 40-rebound mark for the second consecutive game. 

"I am really proud of these guys for setting the [program] record for wins in a season," Waterman said. "There have been so many ups and downs throughout the year that hasn't made it easy, but we have continued to grind through and get better. When I inherited the job three years ago, I wanted to establish a culture of winning, and breaking this mark is just one step in the direction we are going."

Paired with a Fresno Pacific loss at the hands of Concordia tonight, it is expected that Academy of Art will move into fourth place in the PacWest standings. The final game of the week will take place this Sunday, when the Knights host UH Hilo for a rematch from Walter Gleason Gym with tip-off set for 3:30 p.m.