‘Our main goal is to win’: Defensive stopper McKayla Williams helps Gonzaga women stay on top of WCC

Gonzaga women’s basketball coach Lisa Fortier says it all the time: Good offense starts with good defense.

Often that means taking on the other team’s best player. It can be a thankless task – unless you’re McKayla Williams.

“That’s always been my strength, and I feel like my length helps me,” said the 6-foot-1 Williams.

“I like to shut down their best player.”

That alone was enough for Williams to get more court time and break into the starting lineup in this, her junior year.

But now she’s bringing it at the offensive end.

In one of the most encouraging developments for this year’s team, Williams looks more comfortable with the ball in the Zags’ halfcourt offense.

“She’s really developed that part of her game,” Fortier said.

Through 18 games, Williams has 50 assists and just 20 turnovers, a ratio that’s even better than point guard Kaylynne Truong’s.

While Williams is averaging a modest 7.2 points per game and shooting 29% from long range, she’s shown more willingness to drive the lane or look for a pass from Truong.

On Saturday against Santa Clara, it happened twice in half a minute – Truong finding Williams on the break in a crucial stretch that helped GU pull away and improve to 16-2 overall and 6-0 in the West Coast Conference.

“We always talk about that, but you never know when Lynnie’s going to hit you with a pass,” Williams said. “She sees things that we don’t see.”

Of course, no one could foresee the injuries that have plagued the Zags this year. With starting point guard Kayleigh Truong out indefinitely and Bree Salenbien still recovering from an ACL tear, the ball-handling burden has fallen more heavily on Williams.

From less than 13 minutes on the court per game last year to more than 30 this year, Williams has grown into the role on offense.

“I feel like I definitely have more work to do, in terms of making the right play,” Williams said. “But that’s mostly just confidence. I’m a slasher. I like to get to the rim and get layups or make kickouts.”

Williams’ athletic ability is the product of hard work, but genetics didn’t hurt.

Her parents met at Washington State, where Virgil Williams played safety on the football team and Marisa Blackshire played volleyball.

Her older sister Reshanda led California to the NCAA Final Four in 2013 and has played eight seasons in the WNBA.

By the time Williams graduated with honors from Los Angeles’ Windward School in 2020, she had starred in basketball, volleyball and track.

A four-star recruit, Williams was ranked by ESPN as the nation’s ninth-best wing and 87th overall player in the class of 2020.

That drew plenty of attention from other programs, but Williams was emotionally committed to the Zags long before that.

Williams was still in elementary school when she first set foot in the Kennel. She doesn’t recall the year, but remembers watching Gonzaga All-American Courtney Vandersloot and being overcome with “how crazy the gym was.”

That was enough: Williams committed to Gonzaga in the fall of 2019, even before her official visit.

Her freshman year came with the usual adjustments.

In a nod to her older sister, Williams had always worn a No. 21 jersey, but hat also was Vandersloot’s number, which was unofficially in retirement.

Otherwise, she’s fit in just fine. A pre-law major, Williams made the dean’s list last semester.

“But I can do without the weather here,” Williams said on a day when temperatures hit single digits.

Fortunately, she was between visits to California – to her mother in Oakland during the holidays and a pair of games back home in L.A.

New Year’s Eve found her in the gym at Loyola Marymount, where former coaches, teammates and old friends watched Williams and the Zags win by 45 points.

“It was crazy,” Williams said.

Since then, Williams and the Zags have won four more. Going into a big game at Portland on Saturday, they are 6-0 in the WCC and building a strong NCAA resume.

That’s fine, but it could have been better, Williams said. Of the Zags’ two losses, the first came in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.

Kayleigh Truong was out for that one. Two weeks later, the Zags were down to seven players at second-ranked Stanford.

“I’m cool with playing a lot,” Williams said. “Especially the Stanford game – that was a big game for us. And even with seven people, we were in that game.

“Our main goal is to win, always.”