Junior guard Ivan "B.J." Prema put together an impressive week for the Urban Knights as they played three games in five days. The East Palo Alto, CA native reached double-digits in scoring against Hawaii Pacific, notching 11 points and four rebounds. In the win against Hilo, Prema came close to his first career double-double, scoring nine points and bringing down nine boards.
Prema also totaled 23 steals this year, including four last week. Earlier this year he also set the career record for three-pointers by an ART U player, breaking the previous mark of 63 set by Weleh Dennis. He also surpassed the career 400-point plateau this year. He ranks fourth on the team in total rebounds, but is tied for second in offensive rebounds. He recently passed 200 total rebounds in his career. Head coach Mark Sembrowich has noticed, as has the rest of the conference.
“Anybody who watched us closely knows that once we got into conference play, B.J. has really started to give tremendous effort pretty close to most of the time,” Coach Sembrowich said. “He is a gifted athlete and I thought he put some of that on display tonight. He's strong and springy and he gave us nine points as well as nine rebounds. And those rebounds he gets are really big because his head and shoulders come above everyone so even three of those feels like a dozen. It's just exciting to know that he has one more year to play.”
