Riquna Williams

Riquna Williams
Williams in 2017
No. 2 – Los Angeles Sparks
Position Point guard / Shooting guard
League WNBA
Personal information
Born (1990-05-28) May 28, 1990
Pahokee, Florida
Nationality American
Listed height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Listed weight 165 lb (75 kg)
Career information
High school Pahokee (Pahokee, Florida)
College Miami (Florida) (2008–2012)
WNBA draft 2012 / Round: 2 / Pick: 17th overall
Selected by the Tulsa Shock
Playing career 2012–present
Career history
2012–2015 Tulsa Shock
2012–2013 Good Angels Košice
2013–2014 Hapoel Rishon Lezion
2014 Virtus Eirene Ragusa
2015–2016 Al Nasr Sports Club
2017–present Los Angeles Sparks
2017–2018 Reyer Venezia
Career highlights and awards
Stats at WNBA.com

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]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2008–09 Miami (Florida) 26 227 29.9 21.6 77.0 2.0 0.7 1.7 0.4 8.7
2009–10 Miami (Florida) 36 707 40.3 36.1 73.6 4.2 1.7 1.8 0.5 19.6
2010–11 Miami (Florida) 33 717 39.7 29.8 77.3 5.3 2.8 2.8 0.5 21.7
2011–12 Miami (Florida) 30 497 39.7 36.8 80.4 3.4 2.6 2.4 0.7 16.6
Career Miami (Florida) 125 2148 38.6 32.4 76.9 3.9 2.0 2.2 0.5 17.2

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 (which has since been broken by Liz Cambage), at the same time tying the WNBA record for most three-point field goals in a single game, with 8 three-pointers (which has since been broken by Kristi Toliver), 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 after defeating the Minnesota Lynx 3-2 in Finals.

Williams in the 2017 WNBA Finals

During the 2017 season after recovering from her achilles injury, Williams was playing off the bench. On May 13, 2017, Williams recorded 1 rebound and 1 assist in 12 minutes of play in her Sparks debut. On June 18, 2017, Williams scored a season-high 15 points in a 90-59 victory over the Mercury.[9] On August 6, 2017, Williams suffered a left knee strain during a game against the Dallas Wings and was listed as day-to-day missing a few games.[10] The Sparks finished with a 26-8 record and the number 2 seed in the league, receiving a double-bye to the semi-finals. Williams would make her return from injury in Game 2 of the semi-finals against the Mercury, recording 1 rebound in 5 minutes of play. The Sparks would advance to the Finals for the second season in a row after defeating the Mercury in a 3-game sweep, setting up a rematch with the Lynx. However, the Sparks would lose in five games.

On June 24, 2018, Williams scored a season-high 25 points off the bench, along with 7 three-pointers in a 80-54 victory over the New York Liberty.[11] Towards the end of the 2018 season, Williams would be the starting point guard for the Sparks coming into the playoffs. The Sparks finished as the number 6 seed with a 19-15 record. In the first round elimination game, the Sparks defeated the Minnesota Lynx 75-68 to advance. In the second round elimination game, the Sparks lost 96-64 to the Washington Mystics.

WNBA statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career high League leader

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2012 Tulsa 33320.3.344.325.8242.42.11.50.21.410.5
2013 Tulsa 27622.7.397.381.9002.41.81.00.21.415.6
2014 Tulsa 11215.8.406.222.9331.81.21.30.11.36.9
2015 Tulsa 292028.0.352.346.8503.42.61.40.51.615.6
2017 Los Angeles 23617.7.321.270.8641.40.70.80.11.16.4
2018 Los Angeles 33316.6.407.375.8001.40.70.60.00.47.1
Career 6 years, 2 teams 1564020.7.368.340.8582.21.61.10.21.210.8

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2015 Tulsa 1015.6.167.000.0002.01.01.00.01.02.0
2017 Los Angeles 705.2.267.375.6670.10.10.20.00.01.9
2018 Los Angeles 2224.9.381.2501.0002.00.51.51.01.510.5
Career 3 years, 2 teams 10210.2.310.273.8000.70.30.60.20.43.6

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.[12] 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. In July 2017, Williams signed with Reyer Venezia for the 2017-18 off-season.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Riquna Williams Profile". Hurricanesports.com. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  2. ↑ http://www.theacc.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/030110aab.html Archived April 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ "UConn, Notre Dame land 3 players each on women's Wooden Award preseason list". Washington Post. October 10, 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Women's Basketball Player stats". NCAA. Retrieved 25 Sep 2015.
  5. ↑ "Shock's Riquna Williams gets WNBA-record 51 points". Fox Sports Interactive Media. Associated Press. 9 September 2013. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "Tulsa Shock's Riquna Williams Named 2013 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year". WNBA.com. WNBA.
  7. ↑ Writer, MIKE BROWN World Sports. "Shock's Riquna Williams to have knee surgery". Tulsa World. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  8. ↑ "LOS ANGELES GUARD RIQUNA WILLIAMS OUT FOR 2016 SEASON WITH RUPTURED LEFT ACHILLES TENDON - Los Angeles Sparks". Los Angeles Sparks. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  9. ↑ "06/18/17: Phoenix Mercury @ Los Angeles Sparks - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  10. ↑ "Riquna Williams - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  11. ↑ Riquna Williams scores 25 points to lead Sparks to rout of New York Liberty
  12. ↑ "Riquna Williams saved Rishon Lezion". 26 February 2013.
  13. ↑ [https://www.reyer.it/ufficiale-riquna-williams-e-una-giocatrice-dellumana-reyer/ HUMAN REYER FEMALEROSTERRESULTSNEWSPHOTO OFFICIAL: RIQUNA WILLIAMS IS A PLAYER OF THE UMANA REYER!]


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