Two of this week’s selectees are Jordan Sweeney from Heritage of Brentwood and Ryan Langborg of La Jolla Country Day. Photos: Harold Abend & PrepHoops.com.
To the Victor go the spoils and this week that means our NorCal Boys Player of the Week is Dailen Victor from Chavez of Stockton, who has 43 and 47 points in back-to-back games. We also honor a 2,000-point career scorer from San Diego and two girls, one from Brentwood the other from Simi Valley, who’ve been about as consistently strong as you can get.
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Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate someone by 12 noon on most Mondays, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Jordan Sweeney
(Heritage, Brentwood) Sr.
For our NorCal girls honoree we go to the East Contra Costa County town of Brentwood that is part of the gateway to the Northern California Delta Region where we meet a four-year varsity starter who hasn’t been on a team that didn’t win at least 20 games and has averaged 23 wins in each of her first three seasons as the Patriots’ point guard.
Sweeney has had some outstanding performances but on Saturday at the Elite is Earned New Year Classic at Orinda Miramonte, and matched up against University of Washington-bound Nia Lowery, the Idaho State-bound Sweeney had some heads swiveling as the state No. 15 ranked Patriots surprisingly put the hurt on No. 20 McClatchy (Sacramento) in a 70-41 victory.
The chatter this week on Twitter was that 10 assists never gets much mention unless it’s part of a double-double. That may or may not be true but that is exactly what Jordan did, and she darn near had a triple-double after finishing with 20 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds and two steals in the rout of McClatchy.
Earlier in the week, Sweeney was held in check by host St. Mary’s of Stockton and only had 11 points and four assists in a 59-45 loss to the No. 14 ranked Rams, but in the West Coast Jamboree Gold Division championship three weeks ago, Jordan had 17 points and six assists in a 58-39 title-game victory over those same Rams.
Heritage had a third game last week, and in very limited action of a Bay Valley Athletic League running clock victory over cross-town arch rival Liberty she registered 13 points with four rebounds and four assists.
The reason Heritage is 12-3 and state-ranked is because Sweeney is far from a one-girl team. The Patriots go seven deep and one of them is a girl Jordan certainly wants to give a shout-out to, and that’s teammate Abigail Muse. The 6-foot-3 center and blossoming junior star also had a double-double against McClatchy after finishing with 14 points and 14 rebounds with four blocks.
High-flying Dailen Victor is leading team to victory almost daily. Photo: Clifford Oto / recordnet.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Dailen Victor
(Chavez, Stockton) Sr.
We go to the port city of Stockton for our boys honoree, and the way he’s been putting up points this season the people of Stockton don’t have to invest in the Stock Market, all they need to do is put their stock in Victor.
The Titans are only 9-11 this season after playing a pretty solid non-league schedule that included three tournaments and a one-game showcase, but in San Joaquin Athletic Association they are 2-0 after two wins last week, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that Dailen was scoring and stealing and feeling it in both victories.
In the first game last week, an 82-81 overtime victory over cross-town Bear Creek that avenged a November loss at the Joe Nava tournament, Victor, a 6-foot wing who is just as comfortable at point guard, went for 43 points (three three-pointers) with eight steals, seven rebounds and two assists.
If that wasn’t enough, Dailen was really sailing and shooting the rock in a 75-49 drubbing of cross-town McNair. In that victory, Victor had a whopping 47 points on six of 12 from beyond the arc. He also snagged nine rebounds and had three steals.
It was the third time Victor has been over 40 points this season. The first time was in an early season loss to Tracy when he went for 41 points.
On the season, Dailen has been over 30 points seven times with one scoring and rebounding double-double and is averaging 28.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Ryan Langborg
(La Jolla Country Day) Sr.
We go the far southern part of the state and the CIF San Diego Section to a school known more for winning CIF girls state championships, however this week we honor a Torreys’ boys hoopster who is getting it done not only on the court but in the classroom as well.
We could have picked the 6-foot-4 Langborg when he went over the career 2,000-point mark prior to the holiday tournaments. Instead it’s this week we honor Langborg as the Southern California Player of the Week, who San Diego Union Tribune writer John Maffei called a high-riser that can run the floor and handle the ball with a shooting range that is as soon as he crosses midcourt.
Last week, in a mild upset of San Diego Section then No. 4 ranked Foothills Christian of El Cajon, the Princeton-bound senior, who carries a 3.65 at academically challenging Country Day, had 23 points in a 72-67 victory for the UT’s then No. 7 ranked Torreys.
Then, in a 57-56 victory over West of Torrance last Saturday at the LA Court Reporter Winter Showcase, Ryan drove the lane and then kicked it out to teammate Raymond Lu who drained a game-winning three-pointer in the final seconds of the contest.
Coming into the West game, Langborg had 2,155 career points for No. 13 all-time in San Diego Section career scoring. He was also averaging 24.1 points per game.
The Torrey have at least 10 games to play and according to Maffei that gives Langborg the possibility of cracking the top five in section career scoring.
Porter is averaging 20.1 points per game so far this season. Photo: SimiValleyAcorn.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Alicia Porter
(Simi Valley) Sr.
For our Southern California girls award winner we go northwest of Los Angeles to the southeast corner of Ventura County and just off the Ronald Reagan Freeway where we honor a solid player from a solid team that is 12-9 this season but 4-0 in the Coastal Canyon League in large part due to the prowess of this 5-foot-10 center and power forward.
Some coaches like big numbers from a player but most like consistency more than an occasional flash of brilliance, and Porter epitomizes that type of player. Last week, Porter, who is also a standout on the Pioneers’ volleyball team, had a very impressive double-double 20 points and 17 rebounds with five steals and three assists in a 65-34 victory over Moorpark. The 5-foot-11 forward followed that up with another double-double after dropping in 22 points and grabbing 14 rebounds with four assists and two steals in a 61-35 drubbing of cross-town archrival Royal.
Miss Consistency is averaging a double-double 20.1 points and 13.0 rebounds with 3.0 blocks, 2.6 steals and 1.6 assists per game with 17 double-doubles in 21 games this season.
In volleyball this past season, Alicia led the Pioneers with 231 kills, 224 digs and 31 serving aces, and was third on the team with 15 blocks.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
