Academy of Art paints loss on Stanislaus women’s basketball team in home opener

There’s no secret how the Cal State Stanislaus women’s basketball team is going about its business.

The Warriors are going to run, press and look for quick shots. And on Saturday night they ran into a team that did it all at a higher level.

Academy of Art went into Fitzpatrick Arena and shot 61.7 percent from the field during a 103-87 victory, spoiling the Warriors’ home opener at Fitzpatrick Arena.

“It was a pretty fast-paced game tonight and we knew they were going to play that way,” said Camille Roberts, a product of Turlock High School and Modesto Junior College who led the Warriors with 21 points. “We know what we need to do now, and we have to fix it before our next game. Communication is a big thing and that’s what fell apart at times tonight.”

The San Francisco-based Urban Knights (2-2) seemed to be a step ahead of the Warriors throughout the game, but were able to turn the outcome in their favor by outrebounding Stanislaus 45-28 and outplaying their hosts in three key sequences.

To open the game, Art U overcame Stanislaus’ hot shooting by scoring 14 of its first 25 points by beating the Warriors’ full-court pressure. Roberts had 13 points in the opening 8 minutes, 28 seconds, but breaking the press allowed the Urban Knights to survive the early salvo.

Then, when Stanislaus (1-1) got into some foul trouble and eased the pressure, Art U showed its experience by executing in the half-court, hitting five 3-pointers in the final 10 minutes of the half to take a 50-43 halftime lead.

“They shot 61 percent because we had some kids miss rotations defensively in our zone and in our press, and they have some kids who can shoot the ball,” said Warriors coach Wayman Strickland, starting his third season at the helm. “When we played well tonight, we were fine. When we didn’t play well, especially defensively, we weren’t. Our ball pressure has to improve.”

The Urban Knights took that seven-point halftime lead and ran with it, opening the second half of a 13-3 run by switching from a man-to-man to a wing-trapping 3-2 zone defense.

It took Stanislaus about six minutes to find the seams in the zone, but by that time it trailed 63-46.

Art U led by as many as 18 points on several occasions down the stretch, protecting the lead by allowing Stanislaus to score back-to-back baskets only three times in the second half.

“They have some good skill players and four kids who are from Division I programs,” Strickland said. “That’s a very good team. But we should never get outrebounded by 17. It’s that – rebounds and rotations – where we got beat.”

The Urban Knights had five players score double figures to become the first group since Cal State Bakersfield in 2006-07 to score 100 or more points against the Stanislaus women.

Krystal Forthan, a 6-foot-4 junior forward from LSU who was a McDonald’s All-American in high school, led the way with 22 points and 17 rebounds. Regina Camera, a junior from St. Mary’s High School, added 19 points.

Jasmine Washington had 13 of her 17 points in the second half for the Warriors, who next play Tuesday night against Notre Dame de Namur, a 5 p.m. home start. That leaves the team one practice to close some of the holes exploited Saturday by Art U.

“When you score 87 points, you should win the game,” Strickland said. “We have a much-improved schedule and we have a very long way to go. We’re going to be a good team, but it’s a process.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2014 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Academy of Art paints loss on Stanislaus women’s basketball team in home opener."