Good to the bone
Williams scores 27 points to power St. Laurence to seventh straight win
St. Laurence junior Jeremiah Williams had an oops moment during the second quarter of Friday night’s game against St. Francis de Sales.
Williams overshot a teammate with a pass thatwent flying out of bounds.
As he backed up to play defense, Williams smiled and tapped his chest.
He knew it.
“That was absolutely my fault,” Williams said. “Itwas just a bad decision.”
The good by Williams definitely outweighed the bad in St. Laurence’s 88- 48 Catholic League crossover victory.
Williams scored 27 points and added seven rebounds for the Vikings (11-1, 4-1 Blue). Trey Davis added 16 points, while Lance Jackson contributed five points and six rebounds.
By the time he made his passing error, Williams had already sent St. Laurence well on itsway to a seventh straight win.
The 6-foot-4 guard poured in 14 points in the first quarter as the Vikings built a 28-10 lead.
The leadership was par for the course for Williams, who’s averaging 19.0 points and 10.4 rebounds.
“It feels great, me being one of the returning guys,” Williams said. “It’s just nice. Me being accustomed to everythingwe do and being able to help these guys is beautiful.
“I just want to be one of cornerstones who help build St. Laurence basketball to theway it was back in the 1970s. I want to be one of the peoplewhoputs St. Laurence back on the map.”
As a sophomore, Williams spent the first half of the season splitting time between the JV team and the varsity.
“Hewas kind of a ‘six-quarter’ guy in the Catholic League, where they give you six quarters where you can play,” St. Laurence coach Jim Sexton said. “Then at Christmas, he had a really good game against Rich East and basically became a (varsity) starter after that.”
Williams averaged 12 points and six rebounds the rest of his sophomore season.
“I was just happy getting minutes,” Williams said. “Any time Icamein, I looked forhowI could contribute to the team getting wins. I was never impatient. I always focused on waiting formy turn.”
Williams leads the Vikings in field goals made, shooting percentage, free throws made, rebounds, steals and blocked shots.
“He’s the engine that makes our team run,” Sexton said of Williams. “He does everything at both ends of the floor. He’s our best defensive player, probably one of the best defensive players in the state. Jeremiah does a lot of things for us.”
The other standout in Friday’s victory was Davis, who converted four 3-pointers inmoving his team-leading season total to 40.
“I just take it like it’s a layup for me,” Davis said. “We practice every day and I shoot them with confidence.
“It really helps when Jeremiah draws a lot of attention from me. It gets me wide-open 3s. I can’t thank him enough for that.”