BRANSON MO NEWS: Branson High School girls’ basketball coach Kip Bough can recall the exact moment when he realized what he had with sophomore transfer Priscilla Williams.
Williams has been in the area for several months after moving to Branson with her family from Katy, Texas, a suburb of Houston, and Bough had seen her play in some open gyms and practice settings.
But not in a full-scale, game-speed competitive environment … until the Lady Pirates opened the season at Springfield Central on Nov. 20.
That performance, when the 6-foot-2 Williams scored 39 points in Branson’s 68-55 victory, turned Bough and the rest of his coaching staff into fans.
“Honestly. I’ll have to admit, we were all just watching Priscilla,” Bough said. “It was like, ‘Wow, she’s going fast,’ and I think we as coaches fell into that trap. We were watching her, as well.
“When we left the court, we were like, ‘Whoa.’ ”
Whoa, indeed.
That’s likely to be the reaction from Ozarks basketball fans when Williams and the Lady Pirates compete in the Pink and White Lady Classic, starting Dec. 26 on the Drury University campus.
Coaches and players are loath to looking too far down the line, but there’s a potential Pink Division semifinal clash between Williams and Branson, against Strafford, which boasts Mizzou commit Hayley Frank.
Through her first seven games with Branson, Williams has put a big dent in the school record books with some eye-popping performances.
Williams scored 30 or more points in the first six games, settling for 20 in Branson’s loss to West Plains on Tuesday night. The start includes a school-record 43 points coming in the final night of the Battle at the Border, against Lake Hamilton, Arkansas.
She scored 33 of those 43 in the second half as Branson claimed a 67-58 victory.
Williams is averaging 33.0 …
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