NEW YORK — Courtney Williams once joked that it was a big moment when her mom, Michele Williams, admitted Courtney was the best basketball player in the family.
That came more than a decade ago, when the Minnesota Lynx guard broke her mother's single-game scoring record at Charlton County High School in Folkston, Georgia, about 40 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida.
Williams has been filling up hoops for a long time: at South Florida in college basketball, then in the WNBA starting as a first-round draft pick in 2016. She is playing in the WNBA Finals for the third time.
But Williams' biggest stage yet came Thursday, when the Lynx completed an improbable rally to win Game 1 of the WNBA Finals 95-93 in overtime over the New York Liberty. Williams had 23 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
She hit the shot of the night — a 3-pointer with 5.1 seconds left in regulation — and then the ensuing free throw to seal a four-point play. According to Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time a team took the lead on a four-point play in the final 10 seconds of any game in WNBA history.
The Lynx needed the extra period to secure the victory. But if Minnesota goes on to win the 2024 title — which would be a WNBA-record fifth for the franchise and first for Williams — her shot will be perhaps her biggest ever.
«I don't know where it ranks,» Williams said. «It's [No. 1] right now because we are here. I like to be where my feet are planted.»
Williams is averaging a team-high 5.6 assists per game for Lynx over eight postseason games. She also ranks second on the club in points per game (14.9) and is shooting 58.8% (10 of 17) from beyond the arc (compared to 33.3% in the regular season).
Bottom line, she's a bucket-getter, a player with
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Courtney Williams