Williams wins highest honour in unanimous fashion
AN exceptional season from Sturt Sabres star Mikayla Williams has been rewarded with the Halls Medal for the Most Valuable Player in the 2023 NBL1 Central Women’s competition.
This means Williams has gone back-to-back for the medal, and is the first player to do so since 2004, showcasing how much she has dominated since joining the competition.
Williams averaged a double-double and posted strong numbers of 18.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, proving a consistent force in the competition’s best team. She led the Sabres to an unbeaten season, where they recorded 18 wins and locked in the number one seed heading into finals.
In the final game of the season and Sturt’s most recent as they earned a week off for claiming top spot, Williams produced a game that was quite reflective of her season as a whole. She put up 27 points (11/20 FG) and 11 rebounds, leading her side to another tense win.
Williams’ consistency was reflected by the fact that 27 was the most amount of points she scored in a game all season, with her ability to hit the scoreboard a constant factor in Sturt’s wins.
A double-double machine, Williams was once again a deserving winner of the competition’s highest honour and will be one of the most important players in the finals over the coming weeks.
In the men’s competition, it was Juwan Stepney that claimed the top gong, rewarded for another strong campaign at NBL1 level.
For the Woodville Warriors (who finished fifth with 11 wins and seven losses), Stepney was the man of the moment, leading the team on a number of fronts and delivering multiple match-winning moments in the process.
He averaged 22.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists on 45 per cent shooting from the field, tearing apart nearly every defence in the competition and showcasing his ability to find the bottom of the net and score the rock.
The guard’s ceiling was on full display against the Eagles earlier this month, where he exploded for a mammoth scoring performance that culminated in 49 points on 19/31 shooting from the field.
Unfortunately, Stepney’s Warriors were eliminated in the first week of finals over the weekend, but his season was still worth recognising.
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