#high-school-basketball

#high-school-basketball

When it comes to improved teams, the girls' basketball team at St. Monica Academy in Montrose has had a big turnaround under first-year coach Vic Karapetian. The team is 15-3 and 10-1 in the Heritage League after going 1-26 in league play the previous two years. There are no seniors on the roster, and three freshmen have been making major contributions. Karapetian had previous success coaching at AGBU and Mesrobian. Mary Tomooka and Victoria Grigsby, the freshman backcourt duo, have been key players.

"I kept going," he said. "Don't stop what's working."

In a season where freshmen have been making a huge impact in high school basketball, let's not forget about the sophomores from the class of 2028. Brady Sullivan, a sophomore at Oaks Christian, scored 28 points to lift the Lions (20-4, 5-1) past Calabasas 69-65 on Tuesday night in a battle for first place in the Marmonte League. Tristan Cardoso scored 21 points for Calabasas (15-8, 3-3). Mira Costa 53, Da Vinci 40: Paxx Bell finished with 16 points for Mira Costa (20-4, 4-1).

Ontario Christian opened the season ranked No. 1 in the country and Griffin is one reason why. The 5-foot-11 forward was named 2024-25 MaxPreps national freshman of the year after helping the Knights go 30-2 and knock off Etiwanda 65-63 to win the Southern Section Open Division crown before losing to the Eagles 67-62 in the Open Division regional finals. Griffin had 29 points and 11 rebounds in the first game and added 16 points and 10 rebounds in the rematch last March.

Sierra Canyon, ranked No. 1 in high school basketball in the Southland, traveled to Springfield College on Saturday for the Hoophall Classic and came away with a 75-58 win over Miami Columbus. Brandon McCoy earned game MVP honors by scoring 24 points and collecting 10 rebounds. Maxi Adams also had 24 points. Sierra Canyon (18-1) has an even bigger test coming on Wednesday in Mission League play when it faces defending champion Harvard-Westlake (21-2) in a home game that should be sold out quickly.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Ashley Saban scored 22 points against The King's Academy, 25 against Lynbrook and 23 in a win over Del Mar as Leigh went 3-0 last week. Across the three games, Saban averaged more than 23 points, three steals and three assists per game. This article is only available to subscribers Offer valid for non-subscribers only

There was no sugarcoating how disappointed Brentwood players and coaches felt last week in suffering a 16-point drubbing by Crossroads in their Gold Coast League opener. Adding to that, the player inflicting the most damage was former Brentwood standout Shalen Sheppard. "I was mad," Brentwood center Ethan Hill said. So Tuesday's road game at Windward would reveal if the Eagles had learned some lessons. And they did, getting a bounce back 68-60 win.

Inglewood is 18-5 and 4-0 in the Ocean League. The Sentinels will be a Division 1 playoff team. Crowe is 17 years old and still beating up on players who were held back a grade or two. He made seven threes and got his share of assists to 6-foot-7 junior David Conerly, who scored 20 points. Crowe has scored more than 4,000 points in his career.

Junior guard Zaire Rasshan of Damien knows football. His father, Osaar, was a backup quarterback at UCLA from 2005-09. Rasshan played quarterback his freshman season at Damien until deciding basketball was his No. 1 sport. So when Rasshan looked up at the scoreboard Thursday night at Etiwanda in the first quarter and saw the Spartans up 24-0, he had to think football.

With a week to go before opening the Trinity League with a showdown against St. John Bosco at home, Santa Margarita continued its preparation Friday night, defeating defending state Open Division champion Eastvale Roosevelt 65-49 at JSerra. The Eagles are 18-2 and have one final tuneup Saturday against Fairfax at St. Francis before facing the Braves on Jan. 9. Santa Margarita almost lost a big lead in the second half before prevailing. The Eagles led 16-2 to start the game.

Sometimes it can be difficult when a high school coach also has his son on the team, but then there are those unforgettable moments that make every second spent together magical. Such a moment happened on Friday night for Oak Park basketball coach Aaron Shaw and his son, sophomore guard Grant Shaw. Grant made a three-pointer from beyond the top of the key as the buzzer sounded to give host Oak Park a 54-51 win over rival Agoura.

Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles won the Southern Section academic award for its boys' basketball team for 2024-2025. With fewer than 800 students, Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles wants everyone to know that its boys' basketball team for the 2024-25 season was No. 1 among more than 580 schools in the Southern Section in receiving the academic award for highest team grade-point average and also was named CIF statewide academic team champion.

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images) In a high school basketball season that has seen a number of promising freshman guards step forward to make major contributions in the opening month of the season, Major Williams of Edison might have turned in the best performance yet. He tied a school record with 11 threes and finished with 39 points in Edison's 96-82 victory over Long Beach Jordan on Tuesday night.

Palisades, hoping to be a City Section basketball title contender, unveiled two 6-foot-5 twins from Detroit, EJ and OJ Popoola, on Monday night, but there was no stopping Windward shooting threes in its home gym. The Wildcats made 14 threes and received a terrific performance from 6-6 junior Davey Harris in an 80-60 victory. Harris, who said he was "80%" several weeks ago in Windward's season opener after recovering from a knee injury that sidelined him for two seasons, now says he's "85 to 90%." If that's true, wait until he's 100% because he finished with 31 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

Editor's note: We prohibit the use of bots and any other artificial methods of voting. Suspicious activity could lead to the disqualification of candidates and a permanent suspension of the Athlete of the Week poll. No voting by email: Votes by email and after 5 p.m. Wednesday are not counted. For the entire academic year, we will provide a list of candidates who stood out over the previous week and allow you, the reader, to vote for the winner.

Those watching the girls basketball debut of 6-foot-3 freshman Lucia Khamenia of Harvard-Westlake on Tuesday night have seen the way she plays before. For four years on the boys team, brother Nikolas Khamenia became an All-American because of his versatility. He's now a freshman at Duke. Lucia displayed the same qualities in a 67-28 victory over Granada Hills. She had 11 points, eight rebounds and two assists. She made a three from the baseline, just like her big brother used to do.

Whether he knows it or not, 6-foot-5 Zane Daoud of San Marino High is going to be a role model for kids born deaf. He was one of them, 60% deaf since birth. He rebelled against wearing hearing aids. He'd take them off constantly while growing up. By high school, he says he figured out how much they could help him and stopped worrying what people thought. He should be a top basketball player for Rio Hondo League favorite San Marino this season.

1. SIERRA CANYON: Trailblazers can go 10 deep and have elite trio of Maximo Adams, Brandon McCoy and Brannon Martinsen. 2. SANTA MARGARITA: Four returning starters, led by Georgia Tech commit Kaiden Baley. 3. HARVARD-WESTLAKE: The Wolverines always find a way to improve in the offseasn when top players graduate, and this season will be no different as Pierce Thompson becomes the latest new star.

"I like the kids," he said. "My wife still loves it."

There are few individuals in sports history who achieved what he accomplished in his hometown as a basketball standout. He led Poly to the City championship over Manual Arts in 1961, helped UCLA win two NCAA titles under coach John Wooden, including a record-setting 42-point performance in the 1965 final, and won an NBA title as the Lakers' leading scorer in 1971-72 on a team that had a 33-game winning streak and featured fellow future Hall of Famers Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain.

Andrew Wiggins was among the first superstar prospects of the social media era. Born in Thornhill, Ontario just north of Toronto, Wiggins was known internationally by the time he was 13. It wasn't always easy for the shy, small-town kid to embrace the spotlight. After just one full season at Vaughan, Wiggins needed better competition than Canada could provide and moved on to Huntington Prep in Huntington, West Virginia a relatively new prep school set in a small, blue-collar, sports-oriented college town near Kansas.

When any basketball coach is raving about an opposing player, that sets off an alarm bell for sportswriters to pay attention and investigate. It turns out all the good things coaches are beginning to say about 6-foot-4 junior guard Donovan Webb of Golden Valley High are true. Canyon Country Canyon coach Ali Monfared said Webb might be the best player in the Foothill League, which held its media day at Canyon on Saturday.

Rod Wave Elite is a popular high school basketball squad that bounces around the country playing exhibition games to crowds of rabid teens and internet celebrities. They're run by a former college hooper turned influencer, Cam Wilder, and are named after the North Star of Southern pain rap, though the Floridian doesn't seem to have anything to do with the team.