SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Making their first NCAA Championship tournament appearance in school history, #6 seed Academy of Art men's basketball went step-for-step with #3 seed and nationally-ranked No. 15 Chico State in the first half and trailed by just six points with six minutes left in regulation, but the Wildcats pulled away down the stretch to defeat ART U in the NCAA West Regional Quarterfinal by a 78-61 final on Friday. 

"Despite the outcome of the game tonight, I could not be prouder of the performance by the team this year," said ART U Head Coach Scott Waterman. "Yes, tonight stings because this was ART U's first NCAA tournament appearance, but we will all be able to look back and see the history we made. Tonight's game was a case of where every possession mattered, and we had a couple of opportunities slip through our fingers which the past few weeks we had capitalized on."

Action was evenly split between the two sides throughout the first half, as the two teams traded buckets throughout the first 10 minutes of a period that would feature six lead changes. While the Wildcats (20-4) seemed to be just a step ahead, it would quickly be erased with a 7-0 run from the Urban Knights (20-12) that featured five points from graduate student guard Joshua Bagley. Following a layup from sophomore Cheickna Sissoko, Bagley buried an attempt from beyond the three-point line before punctuating the span with a layup of his own to put the Knights up two. 

However, the lead would go just as quickly as it came thanks to an 8-2 run to close the half by Chico State, as the Wildcats did much of their damage from within the paint to take a 36-32 edge into the break. Keeping the Knights in the ballgame was their second-chance points, topping the Wildcats by a 10-4 margin in the category thanks a total of 19 first-half rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive end of the floor. Also key was sophomore Latrell Williams, dropping 10 points to go with eight boards in just the first period alone. 

A slow start in the second half for the Knights would spell trouble, starting the period on a 7-0 run and forcing ART U to burn a timeout looking to stop the Chico State momentum. Though Williams would chip in a pair of layups, the Wildcats lead continued to swell until it reached 13 points just four and a half minutes into the second. 

Not going away quietly, Academy of Art mounted a brief comeback thanks to a Bagley layup and a pair of three-balls from junior forward Mike Asante. However, Chico State would stop all of the ART U momentum with another 9-0 run that would push their lead back into double-digits, this time at 16 with 10 minutes to go in regulation. 

The pattern would occur again, as the Knights found their active defense and forced a pair of turnovers that led to an 11-1 stretch, taking the deficit all the way back down to just two possessions. It was the duo of junior guard Klay Brown and graduate student guard Denny Slay leading the charge, as each recorded a steal that led to a bucket in transition at the other end, with Brown responsible for seven points in that run which included his only 3-pointer of the game. 

Slay would match a Wildcats' layup from Malik Duffy to keep the Chico State lead at six points with just over six minutes to go, but that would be the closest the Knights would come as one final 11-2 span in favor of Chico State would just about put the game out of reach. A few buckets in the closing moments for the Wildcats would lead to a much larger margin than the game truly was, ending with a 78-61 final that marked the seventh consecutive Chico State win over the Knights. 

While ART U maintained their consistent shooting by knocking down an even 40.0 percent of their looks in both halves (leading to an overall 24-for-60 night shooting from the field), the hot hand belonged to Chico State in the second half as they hit on 51.7 percent of their attempts in the second period en route to the victory. 

Though ART U would only tally six total steals in the defeat, their lowest in a game since they also had just six against UH Hilo on Feb. 13, that was enough to set a new Pacific West Conference record for steals in a single season. After surpassing the 200 steal mark just one time in ART U history, the Knights ended the current campaign with a total of 331 to surpass the previous record of 328 set by Concordia during the 2018-19 season.

Thanks to his strong start in the first period, Williams closed the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season, both of which were team-bests on the night. Joining him in double-digit scoring was junior forward Mike Asante with 11 points combined with five rebounds, while Slay chipped in 10 points on 50.0 percent shooting (5-for-10) with a team-high three assists. 

"I cannot say thank you enough to Josh Bagley, Adrian Byrd-Jelinek, Grant Bellis and Denny Slay for all they have given to the program," Waterman said. "I want them to know they left a legacy with Urban Knights basketball." 

While the campaign has come to an end in what is undoubtedly the best ART U season in its 14 years of the program, relieve all the history and records that were set in the upcoming 2021-22 season in review. For all the latest Academy of Art men's basketball news, return to www.ARTUAthletics.com.