The journey to the WNBA has hit a speed bump for Ameshya Williams-Holliday. The Indiana Fever announced on Wednesday that it has waived its third round draft pick from Jackson State University.
Williams-Holliday made news in April when she was the first HBCU draft selection in twenty years in the WNBA. She was selected 25th overall in the third round by the Fever.
The Fever also released guard Lindsay Allen and forward Erin Whalen on Tuesday as well.
Williams-Holliday only appeared in one of the two preseason games for the Fever. She scored two points with one rebound and one steal in just over six minutes of action in Indiana’s 101-89 loss to the Dallas Wings on Monday.
Williams-Holliday hasn’t addressed being waived on social media as of this writing. But after Monday’s game in her WNBA debut she did post the following on Twitter.
“Everything that God put me through, I was built for it. Everything I got, I worked for it,” she wrote.
Standing on an impressive resume
Ameshya Williams-Holliday is the second-highest drafted HBCU player in league history. Only Howard’s Denique Graves (15th overall) was a higher selection.
Williams-Holliday is a three-time first-team All-SWAC selection (2020, 2021, 2022), a three-time league Defensive Player of the Year (2020, 2021, 2022), and in 2022 became the first SWAC player since 2019 to win both SWAC Player Of The Year and Defensive Player Of The Year honors in the same season.
Williams-Holliday averaged 16.1 points and 11.2 rebounds, and 2.9 blocks per game for her career. She scored in double-figures 71 times (including final 39 consecutive games), 53 10+ rebound games, 52 double-doubles (including two 20-20 games), and 60 games of 2+ blocks.
Williams-Holliday led the conference in scoring (19.2 ppg), rebounds (11.4 rpg), field goal percentage (57.7%), and blocks (2.7 bpg) during the 2021-2022 season. She recorded 22 double-doubles during the season (tied for 6th nationally) while scoring in double figures in every game and had 22 games with at least two blocked shots.
Update:
After the initial publication of this article Ameshya Williams-Holliday released the following message on Twitter.
“Thank you all for your support. This has been one amazing ride. Making history in getting drafted and having an opportunity to compete and learn has been phenomenal. This is not the end. The journey continues. I’m excited for what’s next!”