By BILL O’REAR
By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
Krystal Forthan scored 20 points and Zoie Sheng had 18 to lead Academy of Art University to a 74-64 win over the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Monday night.
The Pacific West Conference women’s basketball game was played in San Francisco. In the late game, the Vulcans battled the host Urban Knights in a men’s contest.
The UHH teams continue their four-game roadtrip Thursday, playing at Dominican University in San Rafael, Calif.
Forthan, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, also had a team-high 10 rebounds and six blocked shots to spark AAU (11-6 overall, 8-1 PacWest) while teammate Sha ‘Nice Storey added 12 points, including two 3-pointers.
Junior guard Kirstie Williams led the Vulcans (6-7, 5-4) with 19 points, including 3 of 6 3-pointers. Junior forward McKenzie Mangino added 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. But UHH’s leading scorer, senior Kamie Imai, struggled from the field, hitting just 3 of 11 field goals and finished with seven points and nine rebounds.
The Urban Knights led 41-31 at the intermission before each team scored 33 points over the final 20 minutes.
“They’re a good team and when we made a run at them in the second half, they made some shots and did the things they needed to do to get the win,” UHH coach david Kaneshiro said. “I thought we played hard. We just didn’t do some of the things we had been doing well — we made some defensive mistakes and had some turnovers in the first half when they got out in transition and took a 10-point lead.”
The Urban Knights extended their lead to 18 points in the final half before the Vulcans closed the gap.
“We got it down to eight points,” Kaneshiro said. “But they responded to get the win.”
AAU held a big advantage at the free-throw line, hitting 20 of 29 attempts while UHH sank 8 of 13.
The Urban Knights shot 37.5 percent (24 of 64) from the field and 35 percent (6 of 17) on treys. The Vulcans hit 37 percent (25 of 67) from the floor, 30 percent (6 of 20) on 3-pointers and their 61.5 percent from the line.
UAA also had 42 rebounds, 16 assists, 10 turnovers, 6 blocked shots and 10 steals compared to UHH’s 45, 13, 15, 1 and 3, respectively.
Despite the loss, Kaneshiro feels good about his team’s focus.
“I think our team is coming together, and gaining confidence,” he said. “I know the coaching staff is confident that we can play with anyone in the conference on a given night. But we have to come out and play consistent every night, with a lot of effort, and do all the good things we can do.”
Men
AAU 75, UHH 63: Aaron Anderson scored 22 points and Aaron Aikman added 21 to lead the Urban Knights (4-12 overall, 2-7 PacWest) over the Vulcans (3-12, 0-9).
Junior Joey Rodriguez scored 15 points to lead struggling UHH, which led 37-36 at the intermission. But the hosts outscored the Vuls 39-26 in the second half to pull away.
Dominique Campbell followed Rodriguez with 14 points. Lucas Swanson (3 of 5 treys) had 11, Darnell Williams 10 and Brandon Thomas nine for the Vulcans.
AAU shot 44 percent (26 of 59) from the field, 56 percent (5 of 9) on 3-pointers and 58 percent (18 of 31) from the free-throw line.
UHH hit 34 percent (22 of 64) from the floor, 32 percent (7 of 22) on treys and 63 percent (12 of 19) from the line.
The Urban Knights also had 41 rebounds, 17 assists, 8 turnovers, 4 blocked shots and six steals compared to the Vuls’ 46, 13, 14, 6 and 1, respectively.
Thomas had a game-high 14 rebounds for UHH while Campbell had 10 boards. Alexis Moore led the Urban Knights with 10 rebounds, all on the defensive glass.