This week’s SoCal girls honoree, freshman Charisma Osborne of L.A. Windward, stands with WNBA superstar Skylar Diggins in early February while this week’s SoCal boys pick is Sherman Oaks Notre Dame’s Chibueze Jacobs. Photos: Twitter.com & @ndhs_basketball.
Note: For purposes of this feature, we are considering the CIF Central Section to be in the north.
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Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Will Shannon (Mission Oak, Tulare) Sr.
Yet to even have a 30-point game this season, this 6-foot-2 senior guard exploded in a big way last week during a 98-85 win over Fresno as he knocked down six 3-pointers and finished with 40 points in the CIF Central Section Division II playoff win.
Also grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out six assists, Shannon was averaging 16.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists on the season heading into the section semifinals on Tuesday night against No. 1 seed Ridgeview of Bakersfield.
His previous season best came less than three weeks before his performance last week as he scored 29 points during a 75-62 win over Monache of Porterville.
Teammate Austin Molezzo provided the scoring in the second half for Mission Hills with 21 points coming in the fourth quarter. He also made six 3-pointers and had 38 points for the game. The team total was 13 made 3-pointers.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Rebecca Gallis (Kern Valley, Lake Isabella) Sr.
The daughter of head coach Bill Gallis and a frequent state stat star from the last three seasons is going out with a bang.
On Wednesday of last week, Rebecca just missed a triple-double with 20 Points, 12 rebounds and eight assists in a 68-23 win over California City in the first round of the CIF Central Section Division V playoffs.
Then in the quarterfinals, Gallis went beserk with 45 points in a 72-70 nail-biter over Bakersfield Christian. She hit 19 of 20 from the free throw line in that game, including 17 in a row in the fourth quarter. Gallis also had 10 rebounds and five assists in the same game.
Entering the Central Section D5 semifinals on Wednesday vs. top seed San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno, Gallis is averaging 23.8 ppg, which the top total in the section.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Chibueze Jacobs (Notre Dame, Sherman Oaks) Sr.
Sending his team to the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA championship game, Jacobs made a game-winning shot with three seconds left and finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds in a 56-54 win over Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood.
Putting the ball in the hands of their 6-foot-4 senior guard, Jacobs dribbled near midcourt before attacking the paint and then pulled up just inside the free throw line and calmly sank the jumper to silence the Wolverines’ fans and have the Knights fans go crazy.
Jacobs has had several 30-point games this season and is regarded as one of the top unsigned seniors in the state. He had 24 points and 19 rebounds in the team’s first-round playoff win vs. Lompoc.
Game winning shot: CLICK HERE http://player.tout.com/dailynews/sb7l8h
Cal-HI Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Charisma Osborne (Windward, Los Angeles) Fr.
Although she had some of the wind taken from her sails in Windward’s 55-42 loss to Long Beach Poly in last Saturday’s CIFSS Open Division semifinals, we’re still going with Osborne for what she did as a freshman in Windward’s win over Vista Murrieta in the quarterfinals.
Osborne’s arrival as an eligible player after the first month of the season coincided with Windward’s rise upward in the state rankings. Playing against Vista Murrieta in a matchup between two state-ranked squads, the freshman guard pumped in 33 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and hit five 3-pointers.
“I can’t believe there is a better freshman in the state who could dominate a Southern Section Open Division game,” Windward head coach Vanessa Nygaard said in an email. “Of course, I am very biased.”
Osborne is being compared favorably to former Windward standout Jordin Canada (UCLA), the 2014 Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year.
Paul Muyskens is the Stockton office assistant editor for Cal-Hi Sports. Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
