By Emily McCarthy, News Staff
After back-to-back dominant performances against Towson University and the College of William & Mary, Northeastern freshman guard T.J. Williams earned Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) rookie of the week honors for the second time this month.
Williams attributed his recent success to just one thing. In the words of Allen Iverson, “we’re talking about practice.”
“My teammates definitely make me better each and every day we come in,” Williams said. “Just really practicing before the game. We all go over each certain player on the other team, what they do best, what they don’t do best. Just stay focused before the game and tune in before the game and throughout the whole game. That’s about it really.”
The Pflugerville, Texas native finished with a team-high 17 points Thursday in the Huskies’ loss to Towson. He shot a perfect six-for-six from the floor and recorded 3 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals.
Williams followed Thursday’s performance with a stellar showing in Saturday’s loss to William & Mary. When redshirt-junior forward Scott Eatherton faced early foul trouble and was relegated to the bench, Williams stepped up and sparked the Huskies’ offense. He once again led the team in scoring, tallying 16 points, 5 assists and 2 rebounds.
“When [Eatherton] gets into foul trouble that affects the whole team big time because he’s a big part of our team,” Williams said. “So when he gets in foul trouble that definitely hurts us but when that happens other guys have to step up, myself as well.”
The Huskies will look for Williams to continue his strong play this weekend as they try to earn one last conference win before the CAA tournament. Northeastern wraps up regular season action Saturday at home against Drexel University.
“This week we’re really focusing on having good practices and then obviously winning the game on Saturday,” Williams said. “Just stay focused, win the game on Saturday and after that we’re off a whole week so we just have to put in more work before the CAA tournament and just try to do the best we can do and hopefully win it. Win it all.”
