Even after all the ups and downs, Brice Williams stays committed to Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Charlotte 49ers leading scorer Brice Williams is the son of one of the greatest Niners in program history-- the late Henry Williams. Henry is the all-time leading scorer with his jersey hanging in the rafters of Halton Arena. Greatness was expected from Brice as well, but things haven’t worked out quite like he thought they would and it started week one upon getting on campus at Charlotte.

“That first week when we started playing and I just couldn’t get by guys, that’s when I knew this was different,” said Brice Williams.

As a freshman, he thought he knew how to play basketball. He was a 21 points per game guy coming out of Hopewell, but head coach Ron Sanchez challenged that immediately.

“(Coach) Sanchez would ask me encrypted questions to make me think and honestly, it would make me feel dumb,” said Brice. “That just made me think basketball and when you can get a player to think, that’s the biggest thing because I have to decide if I want to make the change. I feel I’ve tried to make the change to become better.”

Brice was humbled by a game he loves at a school where his father is a legend and he was mostly a player who came off the bench, but the struggles not over.

His junior season, another set back-- a knee injury that sideline him the entire 2021-22 season.

In these days of the transfer portal, it would have been easy for Brice to walk away due to expectations not fully realized, but Brice sticks with the program.

He is back this year fully healthy. He’s coming off the bench, but all those struggles and learning from the hard times are finally starting to pay off.

Brice leads the Niners in scoring at 12 points per game and had back to back contest where he scored 31 points in each game. That 31 is a career high and it bears to be repeated-- he’s coming off the bench. Which proves something his mom has always told him.

“My gifts are going to make space for me,” said Brice. “Whether I’m coming off the bench or starting, it doesn’t matter because I am helping the team and no matter how you feel, you made a commitment. Me sticking to the commitment no matter how I feel shows how much love and passion I have for the game.”

“There’s a wave now where it’s not only players that leave, but coaches quit on players too,” said Charlotte 49ers head coach Ron Sanchez. “We are committed to him-- to helping him become the best version of himself. When that type of appreciation and respect is reciprocated, it says a lot about the character of the young man and that’s why we’ve never quit on Brice. We’ve always pushed him and we’re going to continue to push him because he is not the player he’s going to be.”

To coach’s point, Brice came off the bench for the first 21 games this season. Coach Sanchez put Brice in the starting line up 2 games ago and he responded by scoring 27 points against Florida International. He followed that up by scoring 14 this past Saturday against #19 Florida Atlantic in his 2nd start of the season.

It’s been a long road, but Brice Williams is growing into a pretty good player for the Charlotte 49ers and the best is yet to come.

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