HONOLULU – Hawai'i Pacific University opened with a 13-0 and never trailed as the Sharks returned to PacWest Conference play with a 93-68 victory over Academy of Art Wednesday night at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center.
 
The Sharks (9-2, 3-1) won their fifth straight regular season contest. The Urban Knights (2-13, 1-6) dropped their third straight game.
 
 "This was a great way to get back into PacWest play," said HPU head coach Reid Takatsuka. "They made a run at us, we answered the bell and got a nice win."
 
The Sharks were led by the play of junior guard Janessa Manzano of San Francisco, Calif./St. Ignatius who scored a career-high 25 points that included five 3-pointers to go with five assists. Senior forward Jessi Reeves of Coffs Harbour, Australia/John Paul, added 16 points with four assists, as freshman forward Alysha Marcucci of Melbourne, Australia/Marist-Sion added 12 points and junior forward Gabriella Fotu of Auckland, New Zealand/Rangitoto, scored 10 points with six assists and four rebounds. Freshman forward Makenna Gambee of Hillsboro, Ore./Hillsboro led the team with six rebounds.
 
The Urban Knights got 31 points from Jazzlyn Brewster who connected on 11-of-24 shots from the field including 4-of-9 from the 3-point arc, and tallied five rebounds and five assists. Pre'Franz Dominick posted 14 points with a game-high eight rebounds, with Helena Orts adding 12 points and five boards.
 
The Sharks shot 49 percent from the field (33-of-67), and 50 percent from the 3-point line (12-of-24). HPU connected on 15-of-18 (83 percent) from the foul line. Art U was held to 39 percent from the floor (22-of-56), 30 percent (6-of-20) from the arc and 18-of-22 (82 percent) from the charity stripe. The Urban Knights outrebounded the Sharks 36-35, but HPU suffered only nine turnover while forcing 19 turnovers by Art U.
 
HPU never trailed in the contest, opening the game with a 13-0 run with by freshman forward Jessica Harley of Melbourne, Australia/Caulfield Grammar scoring the first four points and capped by a layup from Reeves. HPU continued the barrage through the first quarter on the way to a 32-18 lead.
 
The Sharks and Urban Knights played even in the second quarter, as the teams went to halftime with a 50-36 advantage.
 
The third quarter found both teams getting big runs. The Urban Knights started the second half with a 12-3 run, as an Orts layup cut the once 17-point HPU lead to just five at 53-48 with three minutes into the quarter. The teams traded scores to keep the HPU lead at five at 55-50 with 6:23 to go.
 
But HPU got a 3-pointer from Manzano to key a crushing 23-3 run that included an 18-0 shellacking to end the third quarter with a 25-point 78-53 lead.
 
In the final quarter, the Sharks substituted freely, building a 28-point advantage before settling for a 93-68 win.
 
The game was the first of a three-game homestand over the next five days. The Sharks host Holy Names on Friday at the Blaisdell, starting a women's-men's doubleheader at 4:30 p.m.