SAN FRANCISCO – Hawai'i Pacific University used an 8-2 second half run to key a 66-63 PacWest Conference win at Academy of Art on Sunday afternoon in Kezar Pavilion.
 
The Sharks (7-10, 5-6) grabbed the lead with 12:47 to play and never gave it up. The Urban Knights (5-13, 3-8) dropped their fourth straight and sixth in their last seven contests.
 
Senior Ronald Blain of McDonough, Ga./Union Grove led the Sharks with 21 points to go with four rebounds, and four assists. Junior David Rowlands of Dayton, Ohio/Moorpark chipped in 16 points with four boards and three assists. Junior Chidozie Ndu of Lagos, Nigeria/Sunrise Christian Academy (Kan.) grabbed five rebounds to lead the Sharks.
 
The Urban Knight got 22 points from Monte Lambert, while Stefan Milivojevic added 17 points and Nemanja Kovacevic tallied 11. Victor Ruiz de Carra led the game with 11 rebounds.
 
HPU connected on 43 percent (22-of-51) of their shots from the field, including 5-of-20 (25 percent) from the 3-point arc. HPU made 17-of-19 (90 percent) of its free throws. The Urban Knights were held to 38 percent from the floor (21-of-55), hitting 8-of-17 (47 percent) from the arc. ART U was 13-of-15 from the charity stripe (87 percent). ART U won the battle of the boards 37-27, while the Sharks suffered only eight turnovers to the Urban Knights 12.
 
The Sharks opened the game on an 11-3 run to open an early eight point lead on a 3-pointer by sophomore Jacob Foy of Newcastle, Australia/St. Francis Xavier. HPU opened the lead to 10 on a layup by senior Daniel Melifonwu of San Diego/Lincoln with 13:01 left in the first. It was the Sharks largest lead of the game. ART U fought back, then used an 11-0 run to take the lead by four at 30-26 with 2:36 to play on a triple by Kovacevic. The Sharks responded with a free throw from redshirt freshman Colton Martin of Flower Mound, Texas/Flower Mound, then a 3-pointer from redshirt freshman Ryan Godges of Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos to tie the game at 30-30 at halftime.
 
HPU grabbed the first lead of the second half on a pair of Blain free throws only to have ART U go on a 6-0 run to reestablish the Urban Knights advantage. With 13:03 to go and ART U up three, Blain went on a 6-0 run of his own with a jumper, a layup and two free throws to put the Sharks up by three and HPU never trailed again.
 
ART U cut the lead to one with 8:40 to go, when senior Neema Namdar of Sandy, Utah/Alta hit a jumper followed by a Blain 3-pointer to give the Sharks a six-point advantage again.
 
The final minute was an adventure. HPU reclaimed a five-point lead on a pair of Blain free throws, only to have Lambert bury a 3-pointer to trim the lead to 62-60 with 40 seconds remaining. HPU ran the time down to get a layup by freshman Lachlan Viney of Melbourne, Australia/Mazenod to lead again by four at 64-60 with 17 seconds remain. The Urban Knights came back down to miss a 3, but an offensive rebound by de Carra set up a 3-pointer by Kovacevic with eight seconds remaining to cut the HPU lead to one at 64-63. ART U quickly fouled, but Rowlands nailed both free throws with six seconds left for the 66-63 lead. The Urban Knights had one final shot, but Milivojevic missed and the Sharks held on for the win.
 
HPU will complete the quick road trip on Tuesday evening when the travel down to the valley to face Fresno Pacific. The contest is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. HST (7:30 p.m. PST), following the HPU-FPU women's game at the FPU Special Events Center.