Elizabeth Williams knew that last week would prove to be a big one for the North Hall girls basketball team.
Losers of two of their last three games and with a game against then No. 5-ranked Gilmer on the schedule, the Lady Trojans were in risk of falling out of contention in the subregion standings.
But behind Williams’ 20 points and nine assists, the Lady Trojans (14-6, 4-2) defeated the Lady Bobcats by 15 points and placing them one game behind Gilmer in subregion 7A-AAA.
"We knew that we were going to have our hands full with Gilmer," the 5-foot-7-inch point guard said. "We had a rough week prior to that game and we knew we had to bounce back."
Not only did the team bounce back, but they bounced themselves into a four-game winning streak and a tie for first place in the subregion.
Following the win against Gilmer, the Lady Trojans defeated White County 60-39 on Friday night and West Forsyth 51-48 on Saturday.
Williams, whose averaging 12 points and eight assists for the season, played a huge role in all three victories.
Against White County (7-13, 5-7), she had one of her best games of the year and nearly recorded a triple-double with 12 points, 13 assists and seven steals."Coming into that game I knew that I needed to inspire my team by getting some steals," Williams said. "We needed that win."
The win was so crucial for the Lady Trojans that Williams did not even realize that she was so close to recording a triple-double.
"I usually don’t keep up with stats during the game," she said. "But looking back it would have been nice."
After the drubbing of subregion foe White County on Friday, Williams had another solid performance against West Foryth on Saturday.
Two points and one assist shy of recording her second straight double-double, Williams’ eight points and nine assists helped her team escape Forsyth County with a three-point win.
The nine assists against West Forsyth gave Williams a total of 31 assists for the week."My job is to make it harder for teams to defend us," Williams said. "The best way to do that is to get all of my teammates involved."
Her ability to get her teammates involved is one of the reasons why the three-year starter plays such an important role for North Hall.
"Elizabeth is capable of distributing the ball as well as scoring and we’ve really needed that this year," said North Hall coach Debbie Blake. "She is an excellent floor general. She leads by example by her determination to win and her determination to play hard all the time."
Although the team is now tied for first place in the subregion, Williams, who is also ranks in the top five in her class academically, knows that there is a lot of work to be done in order for the Lady Trojans to secure a playoff berth.
"It’s nice to be tied for first, but it’s kind of like we’re starting from scratch," Williams said.
"We have two very tough games this week that will either make or break our season."