OAKLAND, Calif. – Academy of Art men's basketball has entered familiar territory as they have now won at least 20 games in each of their last three seasons after the Urban Knights took down Biola in a Pacific West Conference rematch at home with a 76-62 final score on Thursday night.

"Really proud of our effort tonight," said ART U Head Coach Scott Waterman. "For 10 weeks we have waited to play Biola after facing off at their place and we stepped up to the challenge tonight. Defensively, we executed our game plan and, offensively, shared the ball and got great looks. Now we have a short turn around for Saturday against a very good Point Loma team with a regular season conference championship on the line." 

With the Eagles, 16-11 overall and 11-8 in the PacWest, only tying early and never leading, the Knights, now 20-7 overall and 15-4 in conference, controlled the tempo for the entirety of the game as the squad held a lead for the majority of the 40 minutes played. Creating a margin of as many as seven points in the beginning part of the first half, the Knights then turned that into a 10-point lead by halftime. Eight different members of ART U scored a bucket in the opening frame with junior forward Quintin Metcalf's 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting pacing the team with the score set at 40-30 as the teams headed into the break.

Diminishing the Knights' lead to just two points within the first four minutes of the second half were the Eagles as they would not go away easily, and ART U responded with an 8-0 run to build the difference right back up to nine. With a similar advantage for nearly the next 10 minutes, the Knights proceeded to break it open as the margin grew to 17 at a point, and Academy of Art came away with the victory with a final of 76-62 by game's end.

Leading the team in points for not just the first half but the entire game was Metcalf with his 16 points and five rebounds after the final buzzer sounded. Junior guard Allen Taylor (11), junior forward Jamal Fuller (11), and junior guard Rodney Munson (10) all scored double-digits as well. All Knights who saw the floor scored no less than five points apiece including senior forward Latrell Williams who had nine points and seven rebounds (bringing him to just five from breaking his own single-season program record) and junior forward Isaiah Williams who finished with eight points, five rebounds, and five assists.

Daniel Esparza led the Eagles this time around in points (16) with Casey Cappo contributing the next best (15) while Maximo Milovich recorded the team-high in rebounds (11).

ART U will compete in their final regular season contest of the season, as they battle with Point Loma to attempt to secure the regular season PacWest title on the Urban Knights' Senior Day with a 3:30 start this Saturday, Mar. 2 at SF State's Main Gymnasium.