SoCal girls’ honoree Britney Thomas of San Jacinto will play next at UC Santa Barbara. NorCal boys’ pick Stefan Mitu watches shot for Monte Vista of Danville vs. De La Salle. Photos: SoCalMagicElite.com & Phillip Walton/SportStars.
Just like we did during the football season, we are going to do our best to spread around these honors as much as possible with one boy and one girl chosen from each region. This week’s best are from Westminster, Danville, San Jacinto and San Jose.
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.
Note: For purposes of this feature, we are considering the CIF Central Section to be in the north.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Tyler Burch (Westminster) Sr.
Following a week that saw him score 43 points in two separate games, Burch scored 56 points during a 89-79 loss to Ocean View of Huntington Beach in his lone game last week.
Scoring 33 of his 56 points in the fourth quarter alone, he went 9 for 18 from the 3-point line while also making 13 of 16 from the free throw line. Burch’s fourth quarter total also is just two off of the reported state record of 35 set in 1965 by Vince Mannino from Lasuen of San Pedro and it’s a total that puts himself into the state record book.
On the season, the 6-foot-5 senior guard is averaging 26.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists for the Lions, who ended up the regular season as co-champions in the Golden West League. He is uncommitted but is getting attention from schools including Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Barbara and Utah State.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Stefan Mitu (Monte Vista, Danville) Sr.
While Stefan’s point total is nowhere near as high as our SoCal Boys Player of the Week, his did come in perhaps the biggest win in Northern California last week and it came against a team well-known for lock-down defense.
Mitu scored a game-high 22 points during a 52-49 win by the 2014 CIF Division I state champions over De La Salle of Concord last week in a battle of State Top 20 ranked squads.
With the win, the Mustangs swept the season series against the Spartans, made it five straight in all over their rivals and are now in control for the East Bay Athletic League championship.
In Monte Vista’s win over the Spartans earlier this season, Mitu also was a big reason why as he banked in a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime and led the offense with 24 points.
For more on Monte Vista, see SportStars’ Magazine’s Digital Weekly.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Britney Thomas (San Jacinto) Sr.
The 6-foot-2 double-double machine has been one of the state’s top rebounders all season and will take her talents next season to UC Santa Barbara as part of that school’s four-girl signing class.
Thomas closed her regular season for the 22-4 Tigers with 21 points, 23 rebounds and six assists in a 69-31 victory over Beaumont and then had 28 points, 16 rebounds and six assists in a 87-13 triumph against West Valley of Hemet. With the two wins, San Jacinto also wrapped up a 10-0 run through the Mountain Pass League.
For the season, Thomas has actually cooled off since her first game, a remarkable 34-point, 30-rebound, 10-assist outing against Hesperia that the Tigers won by 64-12. She’ll enter the CIF Southern Section Division 2A playoffs with norms of 20.0 points, 18.7 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Regina Sankey (Branham, San Jose) Sr.
Last season as a junior, the 5-foot-7 guard knocked down 19.5 points per game and was selected as the Prep2Prep CIF Central Coast Section Junior of the Year. She’s having an even better senior season for the Bruins.
In a 52-41 victory last week over Willow Glen of San Jose, Sankey shined with 35 points, 16 rebounds and four steals. Earlier in the week, although Branham (17-5) was defeated by Silver Creek of San Jose 57-46, Sankey stood out with 29 points, 21 rebounds and five steals.
In addition to averaging 23.3 ppg this season, Sankey also is reported by MaxPreps with 10.8 rebounds and 4.2 steals.
Note: Thanks to Paul Muyskens for contributing to this post.
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
