We didn’t wait long to get Destiny Littleton (left) chosen as a SoCal Player of the Week with three 40-point games to start her season. This week’s first NorCal boys’ honoree, meanwhile, is Cordova’s Jordan Roberson. Photos: Harold Abend & SportStars Magazine.
This feature is switching to basketball this week and like we did in football we are going to do our best spread around the honors as much as possible with one boy and one girl chosen from each region. This week’s best are from Rancho Cordova, Stockton, Corona and San Diego.
Note: For purposes of this feature, we are considering the CIF Central Section to be in the north.
To nominate a player for next week, email markjtennis@gmail.com by Monday at 12 noon and be sure to include a photo that we can use (which means it’s not from the local newspaper or from another web site). Please feel free to call at 209-463-9050 as well both for nominations or to see if your business or small company would like to become a sponsor for this weekly content.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Jordan Roberson (Cordova, Rancho Cordova) Sr.
Off to a strong start for his senior season, this 6-foot-4 guard is averaging more than 30 points per game after scoring 36 points last week during a 66-46 win over Wood of Vacaville and 30 points during an 86-56 win over Mira Loma of Sacramento.
With reported offers from Northern Arizona and UTEP, Roberson has played on the Lancers’ varsity since his freshman year when he averaged 8.9 points a game. He has improved his scoring average every year going to 17.4 points for his sophomore season and then 21.0 ppg last year as a junior.
Cordova and Roberson lost the first game of the season, 55-50, to San Ramon Valley of Danville at the Prep2Prep TipOff Classic, but he scored 27 points despite the low-scoring nature of the contest.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Aarion McDonald (Brookside Christian, Stockton) Jr.
Not to far from our Stockton office is the school where this talented Washington-bound junior takes the court and she’s glad to get out there after having to sit out the 2013-14 season due to eligibility issues.
McDonald, who shined with 25.7 ppg as a freshman at Bullard of Fresno two seasons ago and was named to the Cal-Hi Sports All-State freshman team, got her season going last week with some big time performances.
After a four-point loss to Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco in the season-opener, she led the Knights to their first win of the season with 28 points, 10 rebounds and six assists during a 72-51 win over Oakland. McDonald then scored 33 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had seven assists the next day during a 73-57 win over Piedmont.
When she played in Fresno, McDonald also set a CIF Central Section freshman-class record for points scored.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Sedrick Barefield (Centennial, Corona) Sr.
Before the Huskies pulled off a big football win over St. John Bosco of Bellflower on Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium, this SMU-bound senior guard overcame a poor start with a big finish in leading the Huskies to a 67-63 win over Etiwanda at the Tip-Off at the Empire Tournament event.
The matchup brought together the No. 2 (Centennial) and No. 5 (Etiwanda) teams in the Cal-Hi Sports State 20 overall rankings.
With Centennial trailing 63-58 with 1:25 left, Barefield scored seven of his 31 points in the duration of the contest. Earlier last week, he also scored 22 points and helped set up teammate Jordan Griffin to score 24 in a win aganst Great Oak of Temecula, a team that upset Etiwanda in a different contest.
“I feel (Barefield) is twice the player he was last year,” Centennial coach Josh Giles told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. “Much more under control, makes better decisions with the ball. Everything about what he does, in my opinion, is better. He’s capable of that.”
Barefield, who was named the tourney MVP, was a first-team all-state junior last season.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Destiny Littleton (Bishop’s, La Jolla) Soph.
Sophomore slump? Certainly not for our 2014 State Freshman Player of the Year. If anything, Littleton is in the midst of a sophomore jump.
In a season-opening 82-33 victory over Our Lady of Peace of San Diego, Littleton scored 42 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had 10 steals. She played four other times last week and finished with at least 40 points in three of them and had at least 10 rebounds in each of those games as well.
Littleton’s very early averages are 40.5 points, 13.8 rebounds and 3.7 steals per game. Last season, she averaged 20.3 points and 8.2 rebounds as the Knights captured the CIF San Diego Section Open Division championship.
Paul Muyskens contributed to this content item. 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
