The Townsville Crocodiles’ enigmatic import Corey ‘Homicide’ Williams has taken out the National Basketball League Player of the Week award for Round 3.

For the week Williams averaged 25.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.0 assists as he helped his team to a 1-1 record on the road. 

Williams came tantalisingly close to a rare triple-double (double-figures in three major statistical categories) in the opening game of the Crocs’ road trip against Adelaide, a 90-89 loss on Friday night. 

Going head-to-head with 36ers import guard John Gilchrist, Homicide scored 32 points as well as adding 11 rebounds and nine assists.  It took a clutch shot from Gilchrist (himself a leading contender for the weekly award after his 21-point, five-rebound, three-assist performance) to deny Williams and the Crocs the win. 

Despite the heartbreaker in Adelaide, Williams helped his team bounce back in style when they visited Melbourne the following night with a 103-68 walloping of the Tigers.  Williams scored 19 points and added six rebounds and seven assists in the win.

His Crocs’ teammate Russell Hinder was also in strong consideration for the award after averaging 18.0 points and 7.5 rebounds in the two matches.  Another in serious contention once again was Wollongong Hawks import Tywain ‘The Sherriff’ McKee.   The mercurial Hawks’ point guard had 20 points, six rebounds, two assists and five steals for the Hawks in their impressive 71-59 home win over the Cairns Taipans on Saturday.

New Gold Coast import Erron Maxey also received consideration after two games in Round Three.  Maxey opened his NBL career with a 16-point, eight-rebound performance in his team’s 83-66 loss to Perth on Wednesday night.  Against Perth on Saturday, Maxey scored 23 points and added 11 rebounds to show he will be a player to watch this season.

There were a plethora of strong performances in Round Three, and New Zealand’s CJ Bruton (32 points in a victory against Melbourne) and Perth’s Shawn Redhage (32 points in a win over Gold Coast) also staked their claims for the weekly honour.

Other leading contenders for the NBL Player of the Week in Round Three included Julien ‘Skip’ Mills (Cairns), Rick Rickert (New Zealand), Adam Ballinger (Adelaide), Luke Kendall (Melbourne). 

NBL PLAYER OF THE WEEK 2009/10
Round 1 – CJ Bruton (New Zealand)
Round 2 – Rich Melzer (Cairns)
Round 3 – Corey Williams (Townsville)