Christian Williams
Prior to Saturday night’s game at Mississippi Valley State, Tigers’ coach Tevester Anderson pointed out that Dundrecous Nelson would likely miss more time with a foot injury.
He also stated that the impact of Nelson’s absence in recent weeks had been lessened by the play of some other players. Players like Christian Williams.
Williams scored a career-high 44 points at MVSU, helping JSU roll to a 90-71 win. JSU (8-16) improved to 7-8 in SWAC play with three games remaining.
It marked the first time a Tiger had surpassed the 40-point barrier scoring since Trey Johnson put up 49 against UTEP in 2006-07.
Anderson’s a big believer in building as much positive momentum as possible before entering the SWAC tournament. Last night’s win helped.
“It’s avery important to us,” Anderson said. “We feel like we need to get in there and really do well these last four games, they’re big for us. We’re just going to go out and play like this is the tournament itself.
“We have to compete. We know we got off to a slow start this year.”
JSU, you may recall, opened the season by losing its first eight in a row, then starting conference play with six straight losses.
But with the SWAC tournament now just a couple weeks away, the Tigers have won seven of their last nine.
“We’ve been playing pretty good basketball,” Anderson said. “I hope our best days are ahead of us. Our team is jelling right now. I think that matters a lot. I think it matters that you get better. Some teams go down at the end of the end of the year, they get tired or they’re not playing as well.
“My philosophy has always been to have a team prepared to play well at the end of the year. That’s what we always aim for, to be playing well at the end of the year.”
