PacWest Weekly Awards (Feb. 5)

IRVINE, Calif. – Academy of Art men's basketball is coming off a week they battled with Azusa Pacific on Feb. 1 and took down the first place team in the Pacific West Conference in Point Loma on Feb. 3 to boost themselves into the top spot in the standings. Collecting 5.0 steals per contest this week was junior forward Isaiah Williams, who has cemented himself as one of the top defenders in the conference, and has now added a PacWest Defender of the Week award to his resume. The award is for games played from Jan. 29 - Feb. 4.

In the matchup against APU, Isaiah Williams found four of his steals coming in the back half of the opening frame, as these thefts and his defense locked up the Cougars while helping ART U climb their way back to a tie going into the break. Against PLNU, the Oklahoma City native had another four-steal half in the second frame, as he contributed to fending off a late Sea Lion comeback, helping the Urban Knights maintain their lead to take the victory with a 95-86 final score.

Isaiah Williams is currently the only player in the PacWest Conference to rank top 10 in both steals (fourth place) and blocks (fifth place) individually while he adds on to an ART U team that leads the conference in steals as a unit (10.8 per game) and ranks among the leaders in the NCAA Division II pool (ninth place).

While this is the first such honor of the season for Isaiah Williams, it is the fourth PacWest Defender of the Week award for ART U in the campaign (Treylon Payne on Dec. 4/Latrell Williams on Jan. 8/Latrell Williams on Jan. 22).