Courtesy: Jackson State athletics
Jackson State University women’s basketball standout Ameshya Williams-Holliday did all that and more as she was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Woman of the Year for 2021-22.
A standout performer in the classroom and competition, Williams-Holliday has further cemented her status as one of the most accomplished student-athletes in the storied history of the SWAC.
With one degree in hand while being a wife and a mother and in the quest and accomplishment of a third consecutive SWAC Regular Season Championship and second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, Williams-Holliday attained a 3.67-grade point average in the Spring of 2022. She concluded the 2021-22 academic year with a 3.5 GPA in graduate school, pursuing her Master’s degree in education.
On the court, Williams-Holliday was 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.
Ameysha 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 the final 39 consecutive games), 53 10+ rebound games, 52 double-doubles (including two 20-20 games), and 60 games of 2+ blocks.
This past season, Williams-Holliday led the conference in scoring (19.2 ppg), rebounds (11.4 rpg), field goal percentage (57.7%), and blocks (2.7 bpg). Williams-Holliday recorded 22 double-doubles during the season (tied for 6th nationally) while scoring in double figures in every game (17 10+ point games, 12 20+ point games, one 30+ point game), and had 22 games with at least two blocked shots.
In April, she was a third-round pick / #25 overall in the WNBA Draft by Indiana, as Williams-Holliday became the first HBCU player selected in the WNBA since 2002. As the second-highest draft pick ever from an HBCU, Williams-Holliday is only the second Southwestern Athletic Conference player and sixth player from an HBCU selected in the history of the league.