Coastal Carolina star DJ Williams earned this national honor for an extraordinary week
DJ Williams’ phenomenal week on the HTC Center court has resulted in a national honor.
She recorded 51 points and a triple-double in a pair of wins over three days and has been named ESPN’s national women’s basketball player of the week.
The 5-foot-10 senior guard set a school record with the 51 points in Thursday’s 124-103 win over Troy, then added the third triple-double in program history in Saturday’s 76-73 victory over South Alabama.
She is the first women’s Division I player to score at least 50 points since 2018 and just the third in the past 20 years to record 50 points with at least five assists, according to ESPN.
Her 51 points are also the most ever in a Sun Belt Conference women’s game. Her triple-double Saturday consisted of 22 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, allowing her to join Angelica Henry in 2013-14 and teammate Naheria Hamilton last season with CCU triple-doubles.
She scored five of the Chants’ final six points to stave off South Alabama, which tied the score at 70 with 1:30 to play after trailing by nine in the second half.
Her two-game totals: 73 points, 21 rebounds, 18 assists, six steals, four blocks and just four turnovers – none against Troy. She was also relatively efficient, taking 48 shots to score the 73 points.
She is now averaging 18.9 points per game this season and 22.9 points in conference action, and leads the conference in points and steals, is second in assists and ninth in rebounds.
The wins were also important for CCU’s season. The Chants (21-3) are now tied with Troy (20-4) for the conference lead at 11-2 in Sun Belt play and tied a school record with 21 wins in a season.
Baseball hosting again
Coastal’s baseball team came out of its opening weekend with a 1-1 record and knowledge that it will likely be without head coach Gary Gilmore for at least part of the season.
Gilmore announced he will leave for liver cancer treatments at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston when there is an opening at the heralded facility.
The Chants defeated UNC Greensboro 12-4 and fell to San Diego State 3-1 before its scheduled game against Virginia Tech on Sunday was canceled because of rain.
The Chants have eight new starters in the field, including some true freshmen, so it may take awhile for some players to adjust to Division I pitching. They were held to three hits by San Diego State and were outhit 18-12 in the two games.
The Chants also have injuries in the bullpen, so they will rely heavily on their top three starters – junior Zach McCambley, senior lefty Scott Kobos and sophomore Nick Parker – to keep them in games early this season.
McCambley and Kobos produced in the first two games, combining to allow two earned runs over 13 innings on 13 hits with 12 strikeouts and no walks while throwing 197 pitches.
“I think we have to take a little more responsibility on ourselves as starters – me, Scott and Nick – but I think all three of us are more than capable of doing that, each and every one of us,” McCambley said. “. . . It’s on our shoulders. The more we can save the bullpen for different teams as we’re banged up right now I think is huge for us.”
Gilmore said Bowling Green graduate transfer Chase Antle is expected to be the closer. He wasn’t available this weekend while dealing with inflammation in his pitching arm but doesn’t have any structural damage, according to recent tests.
“There are things happening, but barring further injuries we’re not going to be full speed until late March,” Gilmore said.
Coastal plays Tuesday at UNC Wilmington then hosts the six-team Brittain Resorts Invitational, which features games at both Springs Brooks Stadium and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans’ TicketReturn.com Field. CCU will play all of its game on campus Friday through Monday against St. Joseph’s, Illinois, Kennesaw State and West Virginia.
Softball rebounds
The CCU softball team rebounded from going 1-3 in the season-opening Residence Inn Kickin’ Chicken Classic by going 4-0 this past weekend in the Battle at the Beach at St. John Stadium on campus.
The Chants (5-3) defeated Jacksonville State, Northern Illinois and Delaware State (twice) by a combined score of 46-8 before its scheduled game with College of Charleston on Sunday was cancelled.
Coastal is hosting two more tournaments over the next two weekends: the Ripley’s Chanticleer Showdown featuring UMBC, Seton Hall and Iona, and Courtyard Marriott Barefoot Landing Invitational featuring Ohio, Monmouth, USC Upstate and Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Freshman Peyton Rivas is leading the Chants with a .500 batting average, junior Stavi Augur is batting .450 with two home runs and 12 RBIs in seven games, and sophomore Sydney Guess and junior Makiya Thomas are also batting more than .430.
After losing the Sun Belt tournament title game 1-0 to Louisiana last season to finish with a 39-21 record, CCU is looking to go one step further and earn the program’s first NCAA tournament berth since 2012.
Giving back
Coastal Carolina student-athletes continued on Feb. 4 what has become an annual tradition of going to elementary schools across Horry County to read to several classrooms as part of the United Way of Horry County Caring for Kindergartners program.
More than 100 student-athletes among CCU’s 19 intercollegiate athletic programs participated in reading “The Giant Hug” by Sandra Horning in over 87 classrooms at local elementary and grade schools.
It’s the 17th year CCU athletes have taken part in the program. “Going out in our local community and engaging with the youth of Horry County has been since a rewarding experience for our student-athletes, coaches, and staff,” said Coastal Carolina associate athletic director for student-athlete enhancement Cari Rosiek.
CCU also had several teams and student-athletes take part in the sixth Night to Shine event at The Rock Church in Conway on Feb. 7. The students helped in several areas including assisting as buddies of the honored guests to make sure they had an unforgettable prom night experience.
Sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, Night to Shine is a prom night experience for people with special needs ages 14 and older. More than 721 churches across all 50 states and 34 countries hosted an event for approximately 115,000 honored guests through the support of 215,000 volunteers.
Powers gets 200
Coastal Carolina men’s tennis coach Chris Powers earned his 200th career win on Feb. 9 in dramatic fashion, as the Chanticleers battled back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Presbyterian 4-3 in a non-conference match at the Stevens Tennis Complex in Conway.
Powers is in his 16th season as head coach and is the winningest coach in CCU men’s tennis history. The Chants improved to 2-1 on the season with the win and 200-133 under Powers, who led the Chants to Big South Conference regular-season titles in 2013, ’15 and ’16 and conference tournament titles in 2013 and ’16 to reach the NCAA tournament in those years.
He has had the Chants ranked as high as 68th in 2014 in Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.
Lax joins SoCon
The Coastal women’s lacrosse team, which has been an affiliate member of the Atlantic Sun Conference since 2017, will participate in the Southern Conference (SoCon) for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years.
The move will ensure that both the ASUN and SoCon will have five participating members at the start of next season as part of the extended women’s lacrosse partnership between the two conferences through the 2022 season.
The agreement will keep both conferences eligible for an automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament despite not having six participants, as NCAA policy provides a two-year waiver for conferences with five schools.
Clarke picked for Forum
CCU redshirt sophomore volleyball player Keera Clarke has been selected to represent the Sun Belt Conference at the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Los Angeles, California.
The Santa Monica, Calif., native joined the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in January after transferring from Southern Illinois University and majors in recreation and sport management. The forum was created in 1997 to give select student-athletes the opportunity to add to their arsenal of leadership skills and join a network of like-minded athletes across the country.
This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 6:54 PM.
