By: Jenessa Gladstone
Box Score
San Francisco, CA - In their last game before heading into break, the Simon Fraser University men's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final minutes of the game to the Academy of Art University Urban Knights, 71-68.
Milos Milosevic (Bar, Montenegro) led all players with 21 points. Ibrahim Appiah (Montreal, QC) also reached double digits adding 13 points.
Leading all players in rebounds, Anto Olah (Gold Coast, Austrailia) chipped in 11 boards.
Ameer Shamsud-din led the Urban Knights with 18 points, while Bryan Fisher scored 15 and Alex Carmon added 11.
SFU's bench outscored the Urban Knights', 29-15 but AAU won the battle in the paint, 30-26.
The Clan capitalized from the free-throw line in the opening 20 minutes, knocking down 10 of their 28 first half points from the charity stripe.
Milosevic led the way for the Clan early on, scoring 10 of SFU's first 14 points.
Taylor Dunn (Vancouver, WA) then chipped in with a long three-pointer with 7:36 remaining in the first and a couple of converted free throws from Appiah and another lay up from Milosevic pulled the Clan within two.
However the Urban Knights scored 13 of the final 20 points in the opening half to take an eight point, 36-28 lead into the locker rooms.
Starting the second half on a 7-2 run, AAU expanded their lead to 15 with 16:20 left to play.
The Clan fired back with a 7-0 run of their own, including consecutive three-pointers from Dillion Hamilton (Vancouver, BC) which made it a one possession game.
After an Olah tip in to tie the game, he converted a free-throw to give SFU their first lead of the half with 5:36 to play.
Freshman Matt Staudacher (Kirkland, WA) knocked down a three to make it a four point lead for the Clan but the cushion was not big enough.
An 8-2 AAU run in the final minutes gave the Urban Knights a three point lead, leaving the Clan's hopes to a three point attempt to tie the game by Staudacher with seconds remaining, but the shot didn't drop and AAU escaped with the 71-68 victory.
The Clan outscored AAU 40-35 in the second half.
The loss ends the non-conference portion of the schedule for SFU, and drops the Clan to 5-4 on the season.
The Clan will return home for a short break before heading back on the road to continue GNAC play when they take on Montana State University Billings on January 3 at 8:00 p.m.
