Williams Tabbed A-Sun Player of the Week

MACON, Ga. – After scoring 33 points and leading the Mercer women’s basketball team to a road victory at High Point, sophomore Briana Williams was named the Atlantic Sun Player of the Week in an announcement by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon.

Williams’ award marks the second time she has earned the accolade, having been named Player of the Week once as a freshman last season.

Two days before playing High Point, Williams went down with a knee injury just one minute into Mercer’s game at Wake Forest.  She returned briefly, but ended up playing only three minutes in the loss.  After the game, she was diagnosed with a bone bruise and was later cleared to play at High Point.

“When she played only three minutes at Wake Forest we weren’t sure how bad the injury was, so a lot of credit should go to our trainer Jesse Kolodziejski,” Mercer head coach Susie Gardner said.  “Sometimes when a player is injured or sick, they can have their best games because they focus better and there is a certain tunnel vision.”

Williams came out firing against the Panthers, scoring her first bucket just 1:28 into the game and later scoring eight points in a 92 second stretch of the first half.  When the final buzzer sounded, Williams was 12-of-21 from the field, including 3-of-5 shooting from long range.  She also added two rebounds, two steals, a block and an assist in the winning effort.

“This was her first breakout game of the year,” Gardner said.  “She had a number of them last year, but this one was just really good timing.  She was in that zone and it really helped the team.”

Mercer returns to action at Lipscomb on Thursday in its Atlantic Sun conference opener.  Game time at Allen Arena is scheduled for 6 p.m.