Samantha Williams likely smiled the entire time she drove from Statesboro to her home in Kingsport, Tenn., on Wednesday night to spend the Christmas holiday.
    Williams scored a season-high 18 points, including two 3-pointers, to tie her career high and lead Georgia Southern to a 52-46 victory over Jacksonville (Fla.) University in a non-conference women’s basketball game at Hanner Fieldhouse.
    “I’m about to leave. It’s a six-hour drive,” she said of the trip to the home of her parents, Kelly and Linda Williams. “I drive better at night than I do in the morning. We have all my family coming in to Kingsport, so they’re back preparing the house. I’m excited to see everybody.”
    Williams, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, twice last season scored 18 points against Appalachian State and UNC Greensoboro. Her previous season-high this season was 11 points in the Lady Eagles’ 87-74 victory over Jacksonville (Ala.) State on Nov. 26.
    “She made me look good tonight,” GSU head coach Rusty Cram said. “She looked great in practice last week. Hard, hard minutes. She’s just really turned it up a notch with her intensity in practice. And her aggressiveness and focus as a senior, that’s what you need. Especially right now. I think she’s just tired of the floundering by the team. This team has desperately needed a leader to step up.”
    A Hanner Fieldhouse crowd of 422 watched as GSU (3-8) began a five-game home stand against Jacksonville (1-10), which is coached by Jill Dunn, a former three-year starter for GSU from 1989-93. Dunn was selected to the GSU Hall of Fame on Nov. 4, 2007.
    The Lady Eagles will not play again until 7 p.m. Jan. 30 against Southern Wesleyan at Hanner Fieldhouse.
    Williams helped GSU snap a four-game losing streak after consecutive setbacks against Appalachian State and Davidson on the road, and to Furman and Stetson at Hanner Fieldhouse.
    GSU also won its first home game. The Lady Eagles entered Wednesday night’s game 0-4 at Hanner Fieldhouse with losses to Arizona, Georgia, Furman and Stetson.
    “Personally, I haven’t been producing,” Williams said. “I think the heart has always been there, but tonight it seemed like my only focus was the team and getting the ball in the hole, getting this ‘W’ because I knew that we needed that before Christmas.
    “I’ve got to give it to the team. They have continued to put faith in my shot and trust me despite the lack of production all season. Right now, I just keep going back in my mind (thinking) ‘What was I doing right in this game?’ so that I can just continue to do that.”
    GSU led, 23-22, at halftime. The Lady Eagles committed 12 of their 18 turnovers in the first half, and Jacksonville scored 11 points off of those turnovers. The Dolphins committed 10 of their 22 turnovers in the first half, and GSU scored three points of those miscues.
    GSU junior guard Meredyth Frye scored 14 points. Junior guard Ro-Ro Smith chipped in eight points, including two 3-pointers. Sophomore guard MiMi DuBose, who played a team-high 32 minutes, finished with one point, snapping her streak of three straight games in double-digit scoring.
    “This is the hardest year I’ve ever coached,” Cram said. “In 30 years of coaching, I’ve never been through a year like this. And we’ve said that from the onset. We knew it was going to be late December at best, early January, before we really started getting a decent ball club.
    “That doesn’t make it any easier, once you get into the reality of that. We just have to keep the kids’ heart and focus, and believing in themselves.
    “We found ourselves tonight in an unusual situation, and that was with the lead. That’s only happened two or three times this year, in the last two or three minutes. And they have to learn that it’s those small victories, it’s a continual learning process for us. They have to learn how to finish a game, and I thought we put ourselves in a position to do that.
    “We just missed the front ends of the free-throws that would have iced the game for us down the stretch several times. I’m very proud of them. They are starting to get a little better. Different people are stepping up.”
    Jacksonville was led by sophomore guard Abril Peeples and senior guard Crystal Bell, who scored 14 points apiece. Junior forward Tracie Sneed had 12  points.
    
    Noell Barnidge can be reached at (912) 489-9408.