Box Score
John Taylor scored a career-high 44 points, Malcolm Griffin posted a triple-double and six Sunbirds finished in double figures as Fresno Pacific defeated Academy of Art 116-80 on Saturday to improve to 16-7, 11-4 in PacWest play.
The Sunbirds were expecting a tough game from an Urban Knights team that took first-place Dixie State to the wire in an 82-80 loss last week and recently defeated Azusa Pacific 97-92 on the road. FPU however was all over ARTU from the start, building up a 66-32 halftime lead. The Sunbirds would go on to lead by as many as 39 in the second half.
Taylor was on fire from the outset, scoring 16 points in the game's first seven minutes and reaching 27 by halftime. His 44 points tied the all-time Pacific West Conference record (set by Academy of Art's William Overton against Menlo of the NAIA Division II in 2010) and were two away from the FPU school record, set by Don Jones vs. Vanguard in 1969.
"John had 44 points off 22 shots, that's as efficient as it gets,” said head coach Chris Wright. “He was on. He hit several deep threes and made the game look really easy today."
Griffin finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Trevon Clayton had a season-high 21 points to go with nine rebounds. Antonio Credit added a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. Rickey Vick matched a season-high and finished with 13 points and Anthony Brant added 12 (4-6 3FG) to round out the double-figure scoring.
"The thing I was proud about was that everyone that played did a good job," said Wright. “When everyone plays their role we get big victories like this.”
FPU used a 16-2 run following a Wright 30 second timeout at the 17:18 mark with FPU down 8-6 to pull ahead 22-10. The run started with a Taylor three and was capped off by a Vick three from Griffin to put the Sunbirds up for good.
Heading into the intermission Fresno Pacific scored a season-high 66 points and went up by as many as 35 points behind Taylor, who scored 27 (8-13) in the half. The Sunbirds shot 53.7% from the field in the half, had 12 assists and scored 18 points off turnovers to spread the lead to 66-32.
ARTU went on a 9-0 run towards the beginning of the second half before FPU put its foot back on the gas pedal with a Clayton three to go up 73-41.
FPU would finish out the victory by scoring 50 second half points and shooting 47% from the field on the day. As a team the Sunbirds shot 50% from three and got to the line 45 times, making 36 (80%) led by Taylor's 18-20 (90%) from the charity stripe.
The Sunbirds were without starting point guard Matt Samuels, who was out due to injury.
Ameer Shamsud-din had 24 points and six assists to lead Academy of Art, which fell to 7-14 on the season, 5-9 in PacWest play.
The Sunbirds' 116 points, a season-high, is the most points scored in a game since a 122-62 win over Hope International on February 14, 2009.
FPU travels to San Diego next Saturday to take on Point Loma at 4 pm.
“We gave up a few layups late, which is a natural tendency to do when you have a lead like that,” said Wright. “Heading into next week, Point Loma is a good team and we can't allow them to get easy baskets like that. It should be a tough one in San Diego."
