Handed new responsibility, Washington-Marion sophomore Braylon Williams delivered with a career game in leading the Charging Indians to a 66-61 overtime win over St. Louis in a nondistrict game played Friday night at Hamilton Christian.

Williams scored 16 points, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter and overtime. He made 1 of 2 free throws with 32 seconds left in regulation.

Williams scored the first five points of the extra frame to give W-M (6-6) the lead for good. First he made a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup, getting fouled in the act and converting the three-point play.

On the next possession he grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a put-back basket.

“First, he did a great job of handling the ball against pressure defense,” W-M head coach Robert Palmer said of Williams. “That’s the first time we put him in that position all year and he came through for us.”

Palmer had to resort to a seldom-used tactic: zone defense. W-M closed the quarter with a 14-3 run to take a 43-38 lead.

“We had so many people in foul trouble that we had to go zone, which I never do,” he said. “But, we picked it up defensively and carried that over into the third and fourth quarters and the overtime.”

Williams’ heroics offset a brilliant performance by St. Louis forward Bryson Hardy, who scored a game-high 29 points. He scored 15 in the second quarter as St. Louis (11-7) took a 32-29 halftime lead.

The Saints trailed by as many as seven points in the fourth quarter but rallied to take the lead. J.D. Soileau drilled a pair of 3-pointers midway through the quarter, and a floater by Bennett McElveen gave the Saints a 52-50 lead, but the Saints turned the ball over on their next three possessions.

Justin Thomas scored 17, Tyree Brown 15 and Kishaun Stevens 10 for W-M.

Soileau finished with 11 for the Saints.