HONOLULU – No. 7/6 Hawai'i Pacific University won its 20th game of the season and ran its win streak to 16 with a convincing 83-59 PacWest Conference triumph over Academy of Art on Wednesday evening at The Shark Tank.
 
The Sharks (20-1, 15-0), ranked seventh in the WBCA Division II Coaches poll and sixth in the D2SIDA poll, once again never trailed in the contest as the Urban Knights (6-11, 4-9) dropped its sixth contest in the last seven games.
 
Sophomore Abbey Noblett of Morwell, Australia/Lavalla Catholic double-doubled to lead the Sharks with 23 points and 12 rebounds to go with two blocks and three steals. Senior Starr Rivera of Honolulu/Roosevelt collected 19 points with two steals, while Junior Alysha Marcucci of Melbourne, Australia/Marist-Sion tallied 14 points with seven rebounds and five assists.
 
The Urban Knights were led by Tayler Bennett with 21 points, while Pam Wilmore added 15 points with three steals, and Aari'yanna Sanders chipped in 10 points with five boards.
 
Sharks were nearly perfect from the foul line, making 19-of-20 (95 percent). ART U was held to 32 percent from the field (21-of-65), hitting 6-of-26 (23 percent) from the arc. The Urban Knights made 11-of-18 (61 percent) from the charity stripe. HPU won the battle of the boards 46-33, and suffered 18 turnovers to ART U's 20.
 
The Sharks opened the contest on a 9-3 run capped by a 3-pointer from sophomore Amy Baum of Melbourne, Australia/Rowville Secondary, and kept a six midway through the first quarter. The Urban Knights rallied with an 8-2 run to tie the contest at 15-15 with 3:11 left in the quarter. It was the only tie of the game. HPU answered with a 5-0 run to end the quarter for a 20-15 lead.
 
HPU broke open the game in the second, starting with a 5-0 run for a 10-point lead after a 3-pointer from Noblett, then extending it to 12 with a layup from Rivera. ART U trimmed the lead to six with four minutes left in the half when the Sharks used a jumper from sophomore Ally Bates of Melbourne, Australia/Yarra Valley to key an 11-2 finish of the quarter. A Marcucci layup gave HPU a 15-point 43-28 lead at intermission.
 
The Sharks flexed their muscle in the third, opening up the lead to 21 following a pair of Rivera free throws and settling for a 66-47 advantage after three.
 
HPU pushed the lead to 25 twice on a Noblett layup and a Rivera triple, and held off any momentum run by ART U for the 83-59 final.
 
The Sharks close a January that featured nine of their 11 games at home. The Sharks get a break of 10 days before starting a key four-game Southern California road trip at No. 17/14 Azusa Pacific on Monday, Feb. 10 in a 3:15 p.m. HST (5:15 p.m. PST) contest.