Junior Joi Williams surpasses 1,000 career points and leads the CVCA girls basketball team

The Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy girls basketball team revolves around junior Joi Williams this season.

And Williams is not disappoining on the court.

Williams scored 23 points Wednesday night to surpass 1,000 career points and lead host CVCA to a 56-26 win over Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown at Tim Beyerle Memorial Gymnasium.

"As a young girl, I always had certain accomplishments that I wanted to make and certain goals that I had," Williams said. "Definitely, reaching 1,000 points was one of them, so [Wednesday night] it was really nice to reach that, to be at home and to have so many girls there to support us. The middle school girls supported us and cheered us on.

"That is the first goal down. I have a lot more goals that I want to reach. This one feels really nice."

Williams entered the game needing eight points to reach the milestone. She scored seven points in the first quarter and made a 3-pointer with 7:12 remaining in the second quarter to surpass 1,000 points.

She finished with five 3-pointers and her 23 points gave her 1,015 points for her career.

"Joi has put in a lot of work," CVCA coach Andy O'Keefe said. "The Nick Saban quote, 'It takes what it takes to be successful.' She has put in a ton of work. In the offseason, she comes into the gym and gets shots up on the gun [basketball shooting machine] all the time. She deserves this and has earned this. She is able to play with that confidence because she has put the work in."

CVCA is 14-2 overall this season and tied with Tuslaw atop the Principals Athletic Conference at 10-1.

Williams is averaging 22.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.9 steals and 2.2 assists this season.

"In terms of her role this year on the team, she is a leader," O'Keefe said. "She has always been a leader, even when she was an underclassman and we had the upperclassmen. At times girls face adversity in games, and she brings girls together. She has always had those leadership qualities.

"This year, God has put her in a position to pour into the girls on the team, and it has been great for her faith and her character. She has had to be patient. I am really proud of her. We have a lot of inexperienced players that are learning how to contribute at the varsity level. Her teammates are doing a great job. It takes time, and Joi has been a great leader through all of that.

"... Joi has done a great job facilitating and creating shots for other girls."

Williams is CVCA's top returnee this season after Gia Casalinova, Kylie Bettinger and Katelyn Harabedian graduated, foreign exchange student Ella Eikenes returned to Norway after one school year and Hadley Hajdu transferred back to her public school, Revere.

Casalinova and Harabedian are college teammates at Ashland and Bettinger is playing at Indiana Wesleyan.

CVCA went 23-4 overall last season, 14-0 in the PAC-7 and won league and Division II district titles.

Casalinova and Harabedian were in attendance Wednesday to cheer on Williams as she became the eighth CVCA girls basketball player to score 1,000 career points.

Williams has helped CVCA compile a 56-12 overall record, a 35-2 PAC-7 record and average 14.9 points in 68 games.

"Joi is one of my best friends and a lifelong friend for sure," said Casalinova, CVCA's all-time leading scorer with 1,749 points. "I couldn't be more blessed to know her as a person and also as a former teammate. It was a no-brainer to come down and watch her score her 1,000th point. I hope she does so much more than that because I know she can. She deserves this."

Royals juniors Hunter Guinn, Elizabeth Fisher, Sarah Bronowski, Sofia Schroeter and Maddy Mague have stepped into larger varsity roles this season. Last season, Guinn logged minutes, Fisher was injured after two games, and Bronowski, Schroeter and Mague were primarily junior varsity players.

O'Keefe is also seeing improvement from sophomores Laney Romanini, Giana Frye and Mariah Richards and freshmen Audrey Haines, Josie Brown, Nicole Neyman and Delaney Creahan.

"God has put me in this position to really just build character," Williams said. "I think in this position I have been pushed to be patient, to be caring and to build these new relationships with these girls, even girls that are in my grade that I might not have been close to last year. I have been able to build relationships and grow as a person overall. ... I love it."

Williams scored a season-high 34 points in a 44-39 win at home over Tuslaw on Dec. 30. She has scored 19 or more points in 14 of CVCA's 16 games.

Her other notable scoring performances were in wins over Fairless (27 points), Orrville (27), Canton McKinley (26), Kenston (26), Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin (26) and Orrville (24).

She made seven 3-pointers against McKinley, six 3s versus ND-CL and five 3s against Triway twice, and Orrville and HB once apiece.

Williams is receiving interest from Northern Kentucky, Rider, Tiffin and Ashland.

"It is not just me," Williams said. "I wouldn't be as good as I am or be able to score the points that I get if I didn't have girls around me that support me. That is what makes nights like this so great. I have girls that love me and support me, the people that were in the crowd to support, that is what makes me the best player that I can be."

Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: CVCA junior girls basketball player Joi Williams eclipses 1,000 points