Riquna Williams

Riquna "Bay Bay" Williams (born May 28, 1990) is an American basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played collegiately for the Miami Hurricanes of the University of Miami, where she majored in sports administration.^[1]

Riquna's nickname is Bay Bay. She is the youngest of five children. As a senior in high school she averaged 32.5 points per game at Pahokee High School.^[1] As a freshman at the University of Miami she averaged 8.7 points per game, including a season high of 23 points against Clemson.^[1]

She was first discovered during the summer going into her senior year of high school playing for Team Breakdown.

She emerged as one of the best scorers in the country in her sophomore year, and averaged 19.6 points per game.^[1] She was named to the All-ACC Second Team her sophomore year^[2]

Williams was named to the pre-season Wooden watch list, a list of players under consideration for the John R. Wooden Award, which will be presented to the outstanding player of the year at the end of the season.^[3]

College statistics

Source^[4]

WNBA career

Williams was selected with the 17th pick in the second round of the 2012 WNBA Draft by the Tulsa Shock. In her rookie season with the Shock, Williams averaged 10.5 points per game off the bench as the Shock's back-up point guard. She was listed on the WNBA All-Rookie Team by the end of the season.

Williams would have a breakout year in the 2013 season, averaging a career-high 15.6 points per game despite starting in only 6 of the 27 games she played during the season. On September 8, 2013, Williams had the best offensive performance in WNBA history as she set the record for most points in a single game by scoring 51 points (the first and only 50-point game by a WNBA player), at the same time tying the WNBA record for most three-point field goals in a single game, with 8 three-pointers, in a 98-65 win over the San Antonio Silver Stars.^[5] Following that performance she would win the 2013 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year^[6]

Williams had an injury-riddled season in 2014, after playing only 11 games she sat out the rest of the season with a knee injury and underwent surgery.^[7]

In the 2015 season, Williams came back healthy and continued to flourish as a player, tying her career-high in scoring average and was voted as a WNBA all-star for the first time in her career. With Skylar Diggins out with a torn ACL after the first 9 games, Williams stepped in as the starting point guard, leading the Shock to a playoff berth with an 18-16 record which was enough for the number 3 seed in the Western Conference. The Shock were eliminated in a 2-game sweep by the Phoenix Mercury in the first round.

Prior to the 2016 season, Williams was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks along with the sixth pick in the 2016 WNBA draft in exchange for Erin Phillips, the fifth pick in the 2016 WNBA draft and a first round draft pick in the 2017 WNBA draft. However, Williams suffered a ruptured left achilles tendon while playing in Dubai during the off-season. She required surgery that would keep her out for the entire 2016 season.^[8] Without Williams on the roster, the Sparks would still go on to win the 2016 WNBA Championship.

WNBA statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

Overseas career

During the 2012-13 off-season, Riquna played for Good Angels Košice in Slovakia and later in the off-season played for Hapoel Rishon Lezion in Israel.^[9] During the 2013-14 off-season, Williams played for Virtus Eirene Ragusa in Italy. In the 2015-16 off-season, Williams played in Dubai for the Al Nasr Sports Club, where she suffered an achilles injury that kept her from playing in the 2016 WNBA season.

References

External links

• Riquna Williams at WNBA.com