Williams shines in season-opening rout

Illinois signee Da’Monte Williams was in action on Wednesday at the Adam Lopez Thanksgiving Basketball Tournament at Springfield (Ill.) Lanphier High School.

Williams wasted no time getting it going in his senior season. The Illini signee scored 28 points in the opener including a few highlight reel plays as the Peoria Manual Rams rolled to an 84-55 win over North Chicago.

Manual also got 20 points from guard Neshawn Brooks, forming a dynamic backcourt duo with Williams.

Williams hit two early jumpers, a 3 and a long 2, but then went cold, hitting just 4-13 overall from the floor in the first half. In the second half, with the jumper not falling, he got to the rim and got to the line, hitting 6-11 from the floor and 6-6 from the charity stripe for an 18 point half.

“When I saw my jumper wasn’t falling I knew I had to get to the rim,” Williams said of his second half charge.

Manual coach Derrick Booth agreed with Williams’ assessment.

“Damonte has a nice jumper and he’s a good shooter, but he’s so effective when he goes into attack mode like he did in the second half,” Booth said.

After signing with the Illini two weeks ago, Williams is now playing the season out with no pressure and just wants to show what he can do.

“There’s definitely a weight off of my shoulders now,” Williams said. “I can just go out and play my game.”

His game was quite exciting. Williams had 4 dunks, and a few acrobatic layups, but his most impressive play may have bene at the end of the 3rd quarter. When Brooks was fouled on a 3 with .3 seconds to play in the quarter he made the first 2 free throws, but on the 3rd shot nobody checked Williams and he dunked the miss home at the horn.

Hyped Freshman Adam Miller saw the first action of his high school career and didn’t disappoint. Miller had 4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals, showing off his talent. However, he also had a few Freshman plays and a couple of turnovers that showed his youth.

“There were times he showed some Freshman jitters,” Booth said. “It’s a big step up from 8th grade basketball to Varsity. But he did some good things too. He’s a really talented kid that will just get better every game.”

The Rams are missing Eastern Kentucky Signee AJ Youngman to a back injury, as well as Demarkoe Grayer, who Booth called his best defender last summer, and Romon Douglas-Watkins to knee injuries. Booth will need to have some players step up as the season progresses.

“We’re missing a lot right now, but we just have to have some guys step up to fill in those spots,” he said.

One of those guys was Neshawn Brooks. Brooks, who showed deep range in hitting a pair of long 3 pointers, also got to the rim and finished in the half court and in transition. It’s just one game, but it had to be encouraging to see that kind of play out of Brooks.

“We knew he had it in him,” Booth said.

Manual will take on host Lanphier at 7:30PM on Friday night.