Honolulu, HI (January 5, 2013)- Despite 15 points and seven rebounds from Skye Savini , the Hawai'i Pacific (5-3, 1-1) women's basketball team could not overcome a slow start and hot shooting from the Urban Knights, falling to PacWest foe Academy of Art (9-3, 3-0) by the score of 85-68.

After having only playing in one game over the past 34 days, an exhibition against University of Hawai'i, the Sea Warriors came out a bit sluggish. Art U would hit one of its 10, first half, three-pointers at the 15:22 mark to build a 14-0 lead. AAU's lead would get as big as 21 until Savini would hit a three of her own with 12:45 to play in the first half. Undeterred by the slow start, the Sea Warriors battled back chipping away at the Urban Knight lead, going on a 13-2 run over the next three minutes, capped by a Melody  Ladrido jumper which cut the deficit to 10. The two sides would battle back and forth for the remainder of the first half with the Urban Knight lead at 10 points at the break.

Art U, who came in to the game shooting under 27% from three point range, hit 10 of 16 three-point shots for 62.5% in the first half. HPU, who is ranked second in the PacWest in three-point shooting, managed only 2-9 from behind the arc (22.2%) in the opening half.

The second half would see the Sea Warriors cut the deficit to single digits several times early on. Mikela Thoemmes would hit one of two free throws just 30 seconds after a Susanna Walmsley three-pointer to cut the lead to nine. Walmsley would find Savini on the next possession to cut the Urban Night lead down to seven with 16:32 to play. HPU had a chance to cut the lead down even further after a Savini steal but a missed shot and an ensuing fast break three from AAU's Jordan Rogers pushed the Urban Knights lead back to double digits where it would remain for the rest of the game.

The Sea Warriors clamped down defensively in the second half, only allowing the Urban Knights to shoot 32.4% from the field (11-34) and 35.7% from beyond the arc (5-14). Unfortunately for the Sea Warriors, the Urban Knights kept them at bay thanks in large part to hitting 14 of 18 shots from the charity stripe (77.8%) in the second half.

The HPU women return to action on Monday against Notre Dame de Namur at 5:00 PM at the Neal Blaisdell Center.

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