OAKLAND, Calif. – Following a pregame that highlighted the program's first Women's Empowerment Day, Academy of Art women's basketball proceeded to strengthen one another and shoot its best field goal percentage of the season all while igniting key runs in the final two quarters to complete a comeback against Biola, winning the Pacific West Conference rematch 69-62 inside Laney College Gym on Thursday.

The Urban Knights wore #WomensEmpowermentDay shirts during warmups while supporting www.GlobalFundForWomen.org, a non-profit foundation funding women's human rights initiatives, and soon steals by freshman guard Lucia Revenga, junior forward/center Christy Ojide, and sophomore guard Alba Rovira Ayuso in the opening five minutes led to scores on the other end as ART U pushed a 10-2 lead from tip-off. A 3-pointer by Rovira Ayuso soon made it 13-4, but the final two and a half minutes saw the Eagles counter with a 13-3 burst to move to the second quarter up 17-16.

Triples were exchanged by BU's Jordan Rabe and graduate student guard Emilia Dougherty in the early portion of the second frame as the teams battled back and forth. Four consecutive layups took Biola from a 24-24 tie score to up eight and, despite back-to-back scores by Revenga in the last 40 seconds, a buzzer-beating 3-pointer had the visitors in front by seven at the break.

Biola extended its margin to as many as 11 points with three minutes left in the third quarter yet a layup by junior forward Yasmine Sifaoui began an 11-3 comeback that featured scores exclusively from her hand and those of Rovira Ayuso.

Down only four in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, ART U made its momentum-shifting move on 13 unanswered points with freshman guard Maddie Morrow drilling two triples in that span. The Knights had gone from down 11 to up 11 over those nine previous minutes and, though three 3-pointers from BU made things close late, Revenga and Rovira Ayuso were both able to convert free throws in the last 30 seconds for the 69-62 win.

"After getting out to a quality start this evening, we have to credit Biola as they forced us to play the game to their liking the rest of the first half," said Head Coach Jesse Clark. "But I am so proud of our group to come out in the third quarter and execute our tactics on both ends of the court and then to push ahead in the fourth to seal result."

With wins in two of its last three games, Academy of Art improves to 6-19 overall and 5-14 in PacWest action with Rovira Ayuso's game-high 23 points coming on a 9-for-16 shooting performance from the field along with eight rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Three thefts were also had by Revenga whose 16 points matched her season best and came on impressive 6-for-8 shooting from the floor. Sifaoui made it a trio of Knights with three steals apiece as she added nine points and nine rebounds as well while Morrow knocked down three 3-pointers for her own nine points. As a whole, the team shot over 48 percent from the field for its new top mark this year.

"I felt like the key to the team's success in the second half was all about the mentality that this group has been building all year," Revenga said. "Throughout all of the adversity this season, I feel like we are showing all the hard work this group has put in. With our final game of the year on Saturday, we can continue to build upon the strong base we have built in the coming season and show out one more time for our seniors."

Still not assured a PacWest Championship Tournament berth, Biola drops to 14-13 overall and 10-9 in conference play. Four Eagles did manage to score in double figures led by 14 apiece from Jordan Rabe and Eleni Cabrera.

Senior Day is next for the Urban Knights who host Point Loma this Saturday, Mar. 2 at 1 p.m. inside SF State's Main Gym for the season finale.