CAC star provided front-row seat to greatness

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporters who covered memorable Arkansas sports events of the past share their insights from today.

A few stragglers remained, but the arena had turned mostly silent and empty.

The clean-up crew was preparing for one final day of the state basketball finals in Hot Springs, the last of that night’s participants had emerged from their dressing rooms and were milling around the court soaking in one last bit of ambience and three or four sportswriters were busily clicking away at their laptops.

On that Friday night in early March 2018, I was purposely a fan, wanting one final opportunity to watch the phenomenal Christyn Williams without having to take notes or come up with a snappy lead to a game story.

“Hey, Coop!” one writer shouted from several press tables away as I waited for my colleagues to finish their recaps of the day’s activities. “Who’s the second best girls high school basketball player you’ve ever covered?”

The question did not deserve a serious answer, at least not on this night. What we had witnessed earlier that evening was unadulterated brilliance from an athlete who always seemed to be on top of her game for the Central Arkansas Christian Lady Mustangs.

Williams capped her high school career that night with a 42-point MVP performance in a 68-57 victory over Riverview High. She dazzled and delighted the crowd with her efforts, hitting 14 of 24 shots and crashing the glass for 11 rebounds.

She dominated the night, but to be honest, it was a typical kind of game for Williams. She averaged 26.8 points a game that season and had scored 41 points in a semifinal victory over Pottsville and 34 points in a quarterfinal victory over Ozark. She grabbed at least 10 rebounds in all three state tournament games. It was certainly not an unexpected performance.

My first glimpse of Williams came in a benefit game at Vilonia in November of 2015. CAC Coach Steve Quattlebaum had alerted me of a talented freshman the year before, and I was eager to get out of the office to enjoy some early-season hoops.

Vilonia has an excellent arena to watch a game, is always wellcoached and is almost always a tough place for opponents to mount any significant amount of offense. Williams scored 31 points that night in a 42-39 loss for CAC.

“She’s pretty good, isn’t she?” Coach Q said with a sly smile.

It was hard to argue that point, but I had no clue it would continue for another 106 games over the next three years. After more than two decades of covering high school basketball in this state, I’ve seen plenty of freshmen and sophomores fizzle then sizzle in their final seasons than I care to recall. Williams never seemed to have a ceiling.

Arkansas has produced more than its share of NCAA Division I girls basketball players in the last 25 years, but the thing I thought separated Williams from the other standouts was that she could grab a defensive rebound, turn and instantly know how to exploit the defense. Whether driving for a layup or finding an open teammate, Williams showed no hesitation.

Williams was also a fun interview. She was bright, congenial and quotable. She was also humble. From my first interview with her when she was a bubbly sophomore to our final talk after she had become media savvy, Williams was always engaging and polite.

But she could display the gab of a typical teenager.

Two weeks prior to the 2018 state championship game, Williams was roughed up in a contentious regional tournament semifinal game against rival eStem. A year earlier, Williams suffered an injury to her right shoulder diving for a loose basketball, also against eStem in a regional tournament semifinal.

“That [hit] was crazy, right?” said Williams, who was sent sprawling to the floor late in the third quarter. “I thought she was going to speed up and cut in front of me, but she ran straight into me. … Same team, same game as last year. What’s up with that?”

Since arriving at UConn, Williams has started in 69 of a possible 70 games for what has been the nation’s most dominate program in the past two decades. She averaged 11.7 points a game as a freshman and 14.6 points a game as a sophomore.

Her career is far from over, and while I no longer have front-row media seating for any of her performances, I will be able to be entertained in my own living room.