UCF guard Matt Williams was on fire beyond the arc Tuesday night as the Knights ran away from the USF Bulls with a major victory, 86-64.
“I felt like the basket just started getting bigger and bigger so I just kept letting it go,” said Williams.
The senior finished with 38 career points and an astounding 11 3-pointers, a new UCF and American Athletic Conference record. This all came after Williams went 0 for 3 to start.
“Once I missed my first three I realized there were certain things I had to do to tweak my shot,” said Williams. “And once I found the tweak, it was on from there. I realized I’d probably have a good night.”
His abilities while suiting up at Jones High School were obvious, helping lead the Tigers to the state championship game as a junior, and averaging 17 points, 8 rebounds as a senior.
But it took to his redshirt senior season for the guard to truly blossom in college. After years of averaging less than 8, his role for the Knights has expanded, now leading the squad in scoring with an average of over 16 points a game.
“Lot of nights in the gym, lot of early mornings in the gym, all the training we did this summer, it just lets me know that all the hard work we put in as a team is paying off.”
Williams even considered transferring from the program this summer when Coach Johnny Dawkins took over. But he stayed, and Dawkins has used his skills.
“Very rarely do you find a guy that shoots the ball that well and from that deep,” said Coach Dawkins. “I always like to kid him that he has unlimited range but he really can stretch the floor because of his ability to shoot the ball from that deep and that really helps us out.”