‘Living life like it’s golden’: CCU hoops star beat cancer to lead program to new heights
DiJanai “DJ” Williams experienced Coastal Carolina’s practices during the first semester of her freshman year via FaceTime on her cell phone, 2,500 miles away from her new teammates and coaches.
DJ, the prize of CCU women’s basketball coach Jaida Williams’ 2015 recruiting class, was undergoing three months of chemotherapy treatments that fall near her hometown of Moreno Valley, California.
So while she couldn’t be on the Conway campus while battling ovarian teratoma cancer, she still wanted to feel like she was part of the team, and video chats were the primary way.
“If you know DJ, she loves basketball. That’s what keeps her going in all aspects,” coach Williams said. “She got a degree because she loves basketball. She was just motivated to get back on the court.”
She returned to the team in January 2016 to complete her redshirt as a freshman, and has been building ever since to what occurred Thursday night at the HTC Center, and what she hopes will occur later this season.
The 5-foot-10 senior guard is leading Coastal to the best season in program history and is breaking records along the way, none more impressive than in Thursday’s 124-103 win over Troy that gave the Chanticleers (20-3) a share of first place in the Sun Belt Conference with the Trojans.
DJ scored 51 points to break Andrea Singleton’s school record of 45 points in a game set 34 years ago when the Chants were an NAIA program.
She became the first women’s Division I player to score 50 points or more since 2018 and is just the third in the past 20 years to score 50 points with five or more assists, according to ESPN.
She was 16 of 31 from the field, including 4 of 9 from three-point range, and 15 of 18 from the free throw line – Coastal went 40 of 43 from the line as a team – while also recording eight assists, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
“The passion DJ has for the game is absolutely crazy. You can see the fire in her eyes when she wants to win,” senior CCU center Naheria Hamilton said. “We always tell her we feed off her energy. . . . I think when she’s up and gets everybody going then we just keep it going, and she’s been doing an excellent job this year with that.”
Coastal has won five straight games to catch Troy (19-4) atop the conference at 10-2 and is ranked 19th in the CollegeInsider.com Women’s Mid-Major Top 25. DJ and her teammates have their sights set on winning the conference tournament to earn the program’s first berth in the NCAA tournament.
“It’s fun,” DJ said. “We’re on a good run. We’re rolling, we believe in ourselves, we know how to work together. . . . Years before it was the same way, it was just we were younger. So now we’ve matured, we’ve all grown up and we’ve grown together to be clicking.”
Finding Coastal
DJ was a McDonald’s All-America nominee in high school while averaging 21 points and nine rebounds per game as a senior, and committed to UC-Santa Barbara.
But she decommitted after that program experienced a coaching change, and one of coach Williams’ connections in AAU basketball in California learned that DJ was available.
“I came out on a visit and really fell in love with Coastal and the environment here. I know I’m talented and I just wanted something different and it brought me here,” DJ said. “. . . It’s easy to want to go explore. I was raised to want to go and find something else, so I just picked kind of what was far on the map and said I’m going to go see what’s over there.”
Before she enrolled at CCU, she went for a checkup after experiencing pain and a small tumor was found on an ovary. By the time she arrived at Coastal, the tumor had grown significantly and the Chants’ doctors advised her to return to California to have it removed.
She returned to campus following the Sept. 1, 2015 surgery and was planning to begin practicing when pathology tests on the tumor showed it was cancerous, forcing her to return to California for chemo treatments.
She has been deemed cancer-free since January 2016.
“I don’t necessarily think about that now. I’m just living my life like it’s golden,” DJ said. “I think it just made me a better person. It made me appreciate life, so that’s what I focus on. I don’t let it affect my life now because it’s not present.”
Some of DJ’s teammates just learned she was a cancer survivor this past Saturday prior to tipoff of the Chants’ game at Texas-Arlington, which was holding a “UTA Beats Cancer” promotion. All cancer survivors were asked to stand, and one of her older teammates nudged her on the bench.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, oh yeah, me,’ ” recalled DJ.
Basketball didn’t come as easy to DJ upon her return to the team as it had at the end of her high school career. She had to regain her strength and muscle mass, and that turned out to be a long process.
“DJ was a phenomenal player coming out of high school, and to have her health completely depleted and having to undergo chemotherapy, she had to start from zero and build herself back up into the player she is today,” coach Williams said. “That has taken incredible perseverance, incredible work ethic, drive and sheer will, and mind you she has done it all 3,000 miles away from her family. It’s a testament to who she is, what her character is. . . . I’m so incredibly proud of her.”
Though she had 21- and 17-point games as a redshirt freshman in 2016-17, she played just 14.3 minutes per game and averaged 5.7 points.
“Mentally that was tough, knowing she could do more but not knowing how to get her body to where it used to be,” coach Williams said. “I don’t know if Chanticleer fans remember her in the early days. She could go really hard maybe once or twice then she’d be winded after that, and that really messed with her.”
DJ has always had a strong basketball work ethic. But coach Williams said it was challenging at first to fit structure into DJ’s behavior, though now she often beats the coaching staff to team activities, and graduated with a communication’s degree in December.
“She’s matured so much from Day 1 until now, starting as a kid who couldn’t get to practice on time to now leading the charge and leading the locker room, it’s incredible to see her growth,” coach Williams said. “It’s full circle and I’m grateful.”
Climbing the charts
DJ moved into sixth-place Thursday on Coastal’s all-time scoring list with 1,452 points, passing CCU assistant coach AJ Jordan, who played from 2011-15.
With 100 more points she’ll pass Melissa Herbert (1989-93), Joan Cribb (1976-79) and Holly Bottar (1988-91) to move into third, and will pass Sherry Barnhill (1979-82) to sit behind only all-time leading scorer Nikki Reddick (1999-2004) with 180 more points.
She’s third all time in assists with 374, and is just 15 from passing Meredith Luebbers (1993-97) to trail only Bottar, who had 500.
“The individual stuff is cool. It’s nice to actually hear and know that in some way or form I’ll have a legacy that’s in the books and can’t necessarily be taken from me,” DJ said. “But I’m more focused on the championship and the team environment. That’s more important to me than numbers, that we win as a team.”
She is the frontrunner for Sun Belt Player of the Year, as she leads the conference in scoring by more than two points per game at 18.8 and is second in assists with 4.4 per game.
“The numbers will be for later. I think it comes secondary,” DJ said. “I just love basketball and believe in us and believe we can win a championship. I’m not chasing numbers; I’m chasing rings.”
DJ is also second in school history to Reddick in career free throws made (416) and attempted (577), which is a byproduct of her aggressiveness offensively.
“It’s more physical to get to the basket. So a lot of times there’s going to be contact, and I just try to finish the play first and worry about the foul second,” DJ said. “I just try to score in the way I know how.”
Williams plays both point and off guard, and is capable of playing forward positions as well. “As long as she’s on the court she doesn’t care where she is,” coach Williams said.
DJ wants to play professionally after college, either in the WNBA or overseas, and wants to remain around sports thereafter, possibly in coaching, sports communication or broadcasting.
“It has been a joy. It’s been fun to watch. Her passion for the game is ridiculous and she loves Coastal and has put everything into it for five long years,” coach Williams said. “Whoever gets her after Coastal Carolina is going to be a lucky team. She’s open to growth and she has grown so much and is so mature now.”
Historic season
With six regular season games remaining – including at 2 p.m. Saturday against South Alabama (12-12, 7-5) at the HTC Center – and the Sun Belt Conference tournament to follow, Coastal is one win away from tying the program record of 21 wins in a season, which was set by coach Steve Taylor’s 1982-83 NAIA team. The program’s best Division I record is 20-10 in 1999-2000 under coach Alan LeForce.
Coastal has four seniors who lead the team in minutes played and are heavily relied upon. Point guard Torrie Cash leads the team in minutes at 34.3 per game, and shooting guard Caitlin Roche is one of the most accurate three-point shooters in school history. They each joined Coastal prior to last season with two years of eligibility remaining.
DJ and Hamilton have been helping the program build for four years while becoming two of the best players in school history.
“Naheria and DJ believed in me and believed in Coastal Carolina before we were anything, before there was rewriting history, before there was an opportunity, before there was anything they both said yes and believed in the vision I had for this program, so for that alone I’m really grateful,” coach Williams said. “They stuck it out and they saw it through and now they’re having the ability to see the fruits of their labor.”
Hamilton, who is 6-foot-4, is second in career rebounds and blocked shots at CCU and has the single-game school records in those categories with 23 rebounds last weekend at UT-Arlington and 10 blocks in a game last season.
Coastal went 13-16 in their freshman seasons then 17-14 and 17-15 in the past two years, and hasn’t finished better than seventh in the Sun Belt or gotten past the quarterfinals in the conference tournament.
This year is different.
“It has been amazing just to see the come up and to be a part of it, and for me and DJ to work together and then also bring other people along to build it,” Hamilton said. “I know when I first got here the environment was a little different. I feel as I got older and moved up with DJ we had different mindsets coming into games and just seeing our progression on the court, I think it really shows this year. I think as long as we keep pushing and doing what we’re doing and have that will to win, anything’s possible.”
Though the Chants allowed 103 points to Troy through a frenetic pace Thursday, they still lead the Sun Belt in defense, allowing 59.4 points per game while scoring an average of 77.6.
“We’ve talked about just stopping other teams and making it fun, and when we do it, it is fun,” DJ said. “I’d say our effort on that end of the floor has picked up, so now on both ends we’re doing what we need to do.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 4:56 PM.
