San Francisco, CA (January 21, 2013)- Melody Ladrido hit a layup after a cross court pass from Skye Savini with two seconds left on the clock as the Hawai'i Pacific (10-3, 6-1) women's basketball team defeated Academy of Art (12-5, 5-2) by the score of 72-71. The big road win vaults the Sea Warriors in to second place in the PacWest standings.
 
As they did in Honolulu, the Urban Knights came out of the locker room on fire taking an early 7-0 lead just two minutes in to the game. This time the Sea Warriors responded as Ladrido hit one of her three, three-pointers to slow the Art U momentum. HPU would continue to struggle to find its rhythm as the Urban Knights slowly stretched their lead out to 15 points with three minutes remaining in the first half. Heidi Anton would hit three of four free throws in the final minute of the first half to cut the deficit to 10 at the break; 38-28.
 
The ordinarily hot shooting Sea Warriors managed just 8-27 (29.6%) from the floor including only 2-10 (20%) from three-point range. The Urban Knights shot the ball a little better in the half hitting 13-40 (32.5%) and 5-13 (38.5%) from beyond the arc. 
 
The second half would see the Sea Warrior shooters catch fire while shutting down the Urban Knight offense. Down 50-37 with 12:41 to play the Sea Warriors would go on a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to make it a close ballgame. Ieva Nagy sparked the run with a jumper followed by a pair of Ladrido free throws. On the next possession, Anton would hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to eight. It would be Ladrido again scoring five points on the next two possessions and the Urban Knight lead was cut to three with 10 minutes remaining. The Sea Warriors would take the lead four minutes later after an Anton free throw. 
 
There would be seven ties and eight lead changes over the final six minutes as the two sides battled for the victory. Down the stretch it would be clutch shooting and defense that would earn the victory for the Sea Warriors. Art U took a three-point lead with 1:10 remaining on an Alisa Griggs lay-up. Anton would be fouled on the next possession and hit both her free throws to cut the lead to one. Susannah Walmsley would give HPU a 70-69 lead with a steal and a jumper with 36 seconds remaining. Ladrido would be called for a foul on the next Art U possession and the Urban Knights would hit both free throws to retake the lead with three seconds remaining. Not to be denied, the Sea Warriors would cap the improbable comeback, executing a cross court pass from Savini to Ladrido who laid it in with just two seconds remaining. An Art U last ditch effort fell short as the Sea Warriors avenged their only loss since November 23rd.
 
The HPU women take their five -game winning streak to San Rafael to take on Dominican University, whom they defeated 61-54 in Honolulu earlier this season. Game time is scheduled for 5:30 PM.
 
Shark Bites: After giving up 15 three-point shots against the Urban Knights in its previous meeting, the HPU defense completely shut down the Art U shooters only allowing 6-25 (24%) for the game including 1-12 (8.3%) in the second half…Ladrido has been on fire so far on the road trip, scoring over 20 points in back-to-back games…Of HPU's three defeats, the Sea Warriors have twice turned around to win the second game of the series, once against Western Oregon and once against Academy of Art. The only exception was a loss against 18th ranked Augstana, who HPU does not play again…
 
Box Score