IRVINE, Calif. - Concordia men's basketball team took on the Urban Knights of Academy of Art University in an intense PacWest Conference battle. Ultimately, the Eagles came up one bucket shy losing the match 68-70.

In the annual "6th Man" game for the Eagles, the PacWest  powerhouse Eagles honored all of the military with staff, cheer & stunt, as well as fans wearing the stylish camouflage "CUI 6th Man" t-shirts. 

To begin the game, the Green and Gold came out cold, and struggled to put the ball in the rim causing them to trail 11-2 before a quick timeout from head coach Ken Ammann.

After the break, the Eagles squad seemed to find their rhythm and went on an 11-2 run themselves to knot the score after a couple of Austin Clarke trey ball's 13-13.

The rest of the first half for CUI saw more struggles to put the ball in the basket. The Irvine squad shot 29% from the floor and ended the half with a small deficit 29-33. Junior Darius Lee led the team into the break shooting 4-8 with 8

points.

As the second half got underway the battle for the Eagles got more intense. ArtU would not give up and continued to fight for the game as they needed the win to stay alive in the hunt for the PacWest Conference Championships Tournament. 

Concordia and ArtU fought back and forth trading baskets throughout the half but the Eagles needed stops on the defensive end. The Urban Knights outrebounded the Home Team by 14 rebounds on the night.

No stranger to hardwork and determination, redshirt sophomore Kayle Knuckles brought a spark to the Eagle fans and crowd with a monstrous two-hand slam, a corner 3-pointer, and a putback layup to give the Green and Gold some mojo.

The spark from Knuckles gave the Eagles enough momentum to gain their first lead of the game with 4:00 minutes remaining on the game clock. The go ahead bucket came from senior Cameron English on a lob play from Rob McCoy.

From then on, the Urban Knights took the lead and never looked back again. Concordia continued to battle until the final whistle but ArtU guard, Stefan Milivojevic was able to knock down all of his late game free-throws (10-10) to keep the Eagles at bay. 

"Art really played tough in both of our games this year," said Ammann. "We made enough plays in our first contest but tonight we didn't. It is critical to start the game off correctly in regards to that this time of year and we can't afford to not get that done."

CUI men's basketball team will look to redeem their loss on Thursday, February 27th at 7:30 p.m. at BIOLA University.

For more information on the Green and Gold men's basketball team, click here: