PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Commissioner Mike Aresco has announced that USF guard Courtney Williams has been chosen as the 2015-16 American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The selection was made by the conference’s Academic Affairs Committee and is presented on the basis of academic credentials and athletic performance.
Williams, a senior from Folkston, Georgia, will receive a $2,000 scholarship, which may be applied to graduate or professional studies.
Williams is one of the nation’s top scorers, entering the postseason averaging 22.3 points per game - leading The American and ranking second among all Division I players – and is on pace to finish as the conference’s leading scorer for the second consecutive year. She is fourth in the conference in rebounding (8.9 rpg), fifth in three-point percentage (.402) and ninth in blocked shots (23).
Williams has led USF to a 20-7 regular season, a runner-up finish in the American Athletic Conference standings and the No. 2 seed in the conference championship. She competed last summer in the Pan-American Games in Toronto, winning a silver medal, and at the World University Games in South Korea, helping Team USA to a 6-0 record and the gold medal.
Williams holds a 3.28 grade-point average as a criminology major. She was an American Athletic Conference All-Academic selection last year and has been named to the athletic director’s honor roll at USF in each of her first three years. She also has a long list of community service projects and volunteer work, including Paralympic Sports of Tampa Bay this past December.
The Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor is one of a number of scholarships presented by the American Athletic Conference during the 2015-16 academic year. The conference also names winners of the league’s Institutional Scholar-Athlete Scholarships, which go to one male and one female student-athlete at each of the conference’s member institutions. The American additionally names Scholar-Athletes of the Year in football and men’s basketball.
The winners of the institutional, football and basketball awards are then eligible for the American Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, which provides an additional postgraduate scholarship to one male and one female student-athlete.
American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athletes of the Year
2013-14 Antonita Slaughter, Louisville
2014-15 Jamie Kaplan, Tulane
2015-16 Courtney Williams, USF