Antelopes Down Academy of Art 66-49

Thursday, January 20

San Francisco, CA

5:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Academy of Art

Jenna Pearson had eight points in Thursday's win over AAU.

1/20/2011 7:51:27 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

12th-ranked GCU hold Knights without a field goal for 10 minutes of second half

By: Steve Heath

No. 12 Grand Canyon held Academy of Art without a field goal for the first 10 minutes of the second half and earned its second straight Pacific West Conference win, 66-49, at San Francisco State University Thursday.

GCU (14-2, 2-1) senior All-America candidate Samantha Murphy (Phoenix, AZ, Xavier Prep)had 25 points, 16 in the second half. Junior Stevie Kamp (Mesa, Ariz., Mountain View, Nova Southeastern) had a new season-high with 12, her previous season-high, 11, came Tuesday in a win over Notre Dame de Namur. Freshman Jenna Pearson (Gilbert, Ariz.) had eight points, one off her season’s best.

Academy of Art (4-11, 2-4) didn’t get its first second-half field goal until the 9:48 mark, by then GCU led 48-35.

“I felt like we had better ball pressure and communicated better on defense,” said Pearson. “We were helping each other out. Our coaches are always stressing to us to communicate.”

Academy of Art (4-11, 2-4) got within one early in the second half, 31-30, but Murphy followed shortly with a pair of 3-pointers to give GCU some comfort, 37-30, at the 16:08 mark. The treys started a 13-0 run.

Kamp followed the treys, with a pair of inside buckets. The latter drew a foul and she converted the three-point play for a 42-30 lead. She scored again after an AAU timeout to make it 44-30.

Grand Canyon led by 14, 27-13, with 6:01 left until halftime, but Art U went on a 15-4 run to end the half. GCU shot just 33 percent (10-of-30) for the first 20 minutes. It held the Urban Knights to 40 percent (10-of-25) shooting, outrebounded them 20-16 and committed nine turnovers to AAU’s 12.

For the game, GCU held the Knights to only 29.6 percent shooting, 20.7 in the second half.

“I thought we played a really good first 13 minutes, but we weren’t making the hustle plays in the last seven minutes of the first half,” said GCU coach Trent May. “We weren’t getting the 50-50 balls. We responded really well (after halftime). We weren’t scoring (early in the half), but we were playing defense. Once we started scoring it gave us a cushion.”

Grand Canyon outrebounded Academy of Art 47-34 for the game and helped force 24 Knights’ turnovers. Jallisa Butler (Las Vegas, Nev., Cimarron, Barstow CC) had a game-high 12.

GCU will play at Dominican University Saturday.

Box Score