Williams Gives Team Energy

After expending enough energy to run a marathon and after falling to the floor enough times that no one would have blamed her if she didn’t get back up, the StingRays’ Beverly Williams left the Pyramid on Monday night triumphant and full of fight.

“I’m always exhausted after a hard day’s work,” the unflappable guard said. “I think I could have gone another 10 minutes if I had to.”

In helping the StingRays beat the Columbus Quest, 71-61, for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series of the ABL championship, Williams showed what heart and determination really mean.

“Beverly was playing defense like a mad woman,” StingRay Coach Maura McHugh said. “She was sick. She was hardly able to talk. She played on guts and heart.”

Williams, a 32-year-old former University of Texas star, guarded the Quest’s two top scorers, Katie Smith and Tonya Edwards. All you need to know is Smith finished one for nine from the field and had four points. Edwards was six of 16 and had 15 points.

Williams contributed 18 points herself.

Certainly, it was a team effort for the StingRays to overcome two 10-point deficits and knock off the favored Quest a second straight night. But Williams’ hustle and toughness let Quest players know the StingRays weren’t about to call it quits.

Williams’ legs provide a map to her many years of basketball. They are filled with scars and bruises.

“It goes with the game,” she said. “You heal your bruises after the game is over and try not to worry about it when you’re playing. You play hurt, you’re not going to play well. I wouldn’t trade [these] bruises for anything.”

For more than four minutes in the third quarter, the StingRays held the Quest scoreless. They went on a 10-0 run to tie the score at 41-41 with 3:54 remaining in the quarter.

Then, with 4.4 seconds left before the quarter ended, Williams stood in the key and let the Quest’s 6-1 Valerie Still charge into her for an offensive foul. The collision was powerful. Williams went flying. But she soon got back up. She always gets back up.

At this time last year, Williams was a part-time basketball coach at Concordia University and working full-time merchandising products for a soft drink company in Austin, Texas.

She had been cut in her first tryout for the ABL.

“I was disappointed because I felt a lot of players who were drafted and playing that first year shouldn’t be playing,” she said. “I had to come in and prove myself.”

This season, she has risen from nowhere to start in the all-star game and help the StingRays move within one victory of an improbable championship.

Women’s professional basketball is alive and flourishing in Long Beach. The enthusiasm and commitment of the players and their fans is everywhere.

What a scene watching the 8-year-old daughter of StingRay forward Yolanda Griffith dancing in the stands in the fourth quarter with four of her young friends. Do you think she might have dreams of one day following her mother into pro basketball?

If people are looking for role models, is there anyone better to emulate than Williams?

“It’s an all-out effort,” Williams said of the StingRays’ success. “We just kept playing hard.”

One more win in Columbus, Ohio, this week, and the StingRays will be breaking out the champagne.

Williams can’t wait.