Two of this week’s SoCal/NorCal players of the week are Trinity Zamora of Piedmont and Marley Gonzalez of Escondido Charter. Photos: Harold Abend / Cal-Hi Sports & Hudl.com.
As the basketball season is about to hit the section playoffs throughout the state, for our Southern California honorees we visit Escondido in the North County portion of the CIF San Diego Section and Newport Beach in Southern Orange County. In the north, there’s a player from a team that was undefeated in Visalia until this week getting attention while there’s a stop in the East Bay hills near San Francisco.
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Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. We also remind readers that for all of our Player of the Week features in all sports, girls and boys, we use it to uncover hidden talent that doesn’t always make the limelight, and for tracking entries into the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
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Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Marley Gonzalez (Escondido Charter, Escondido) Sr.
For our Southern California Boys Basketball Player of the Week honor, we land in the North County portion of the CIF San Diego Section about two miles east of Interstate 15. At Escondido Charter, we find a 6-foot-8 senior center named Marley that makes opponents a little gnarly when they have to face him.
As is the case with a lot of players who consistently put up big numbers, we could have picked Gonzalez a week earlier in the season to honor him so him winning this week’s SoCal boys honor is kind of like awarding him for this season’s overall body of work.
Last week started out as a bit of a downer for Gonzalez and his White Tigers’ teammates but Marley did what he could with a huge double-double 20 points and 23 rebounds with three blocks in a 54-46 loss at Carlsbad Pacific Ridge. Marley came back with another monster double-double 25 and 22 rebounds with three assists in a 62-45 victory in San Diego at Maranatha Christian.
So far this season for the 17-9 White Tigers, Gonzalez is averaging 19.7 points and 15.6 rebounds per game and he has 21 double-doubles in 26 games. His high water mark is 34 points with 20 rebounds in a 71-65 loss to Mar Vista of Imperial Beach. His top game rebounding total was when he snagged 32 rebounds to go with 28 points in a 62-31 victory at Guajome Park Academy in nearby Vista.
Earlier this season, Gonzalez hit the 1,000 career points milestone and heading into a Thursday night matchup with crosstown Calvin Christian he has 1,182 career points.
Addison Deal and team at Pacifica Christian are the top seed for the CIFSS D4-A playoffs. Photo: @PCHS_Tritons / Twitter.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Addison Deal
(Pacifica Christian, Newport Beach) Fr.
Southern Orange County less than a mile from the Pacific Coast Highway is our destination and at Pacifica Christian is where we find our Southern California Girls Basketball Player of the Week.
We don’t honor a lot of freshmen not because we don’t want to, but because not a lot of first-year players put up the kind of consistent numbers Deal has been delivering, so in a bit of an odd twist we honor a freshman from Southern California for the second straight week after honoring Elle Stone of Santa Barbara last week.
We realize that saying Deal is the real deal is a cliché but not so much so when it’s true. Addison is another example of a player who puts up the kind of consistent numbers that would have qualified her to be one of our weekly winners earlier this season but this was her week.
The Tritons only had one game last week but Deal made the most of it just missing a triple-double after the 5-foot-11 wing went for 29 points (two three-pointers) and 11 rebounds with nine assists in a 90-46 victory over visiting Rancho Christian of Temecula.
Two weeks ago, the real Deal just missed a quad but did register a triple-double after going for 19 points, 15 assists, 10 steals and seven rebounds in an 87-14 win over crosstown Newport Christian. So far, in a 21-5 season, Addison is averaging 21.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.5 steals per game. Her next game won’t be until next week since Pacifica Christian on Tuesday received the top seed and first-round bye in the CIFSS Division 4A playoffs.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Trinity Zamora (Piedmont) Jr.
To find our Northern California Girls Basketball Player of the Week, we visit a small city in Alameda County that’s completely surrounded by the city of Oakland. At Piedmont, we find a 6-foot junior who we won’t say is flying under the radar since a ton of colleges are interested in her, and she was an All State First Team Sophomores selection in the COVID shortened spring season. Still, most girls high school fans don’t know a lot about her since the huge numbers she’s been putting up are not reported.
After we saw Zamora at the St. Mary’s Stockton MLK Showcase in a 60-43 win over Lynwood when she had 21 points and 14 rebounds with five assists, four steals and two blocks in around three quarters of work, we asked Highlanders’ head coach Bryan Gardere to start sending us her stats for each week’s games. With the way Trinity can fill a stat sheet, and after what we saw she did against Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) when that team was in the rankings we waited for the right spot to honor Zamora and this is the week.
Zamora started off last week with a double-double 32 points and 15 rebounds with six steals, five assists, and four blocks in a 69-25 victory over Berkeley. She followed that up with a double-double 18 points and 18 rebounds with four assists, three steals and three blocks in a 52-35 win against Alameda. Next was Oakland Tech at the Bishop O’Dowd rescheduled MLK Showcase last Saturday when Miss Double-double was at it again with 23 points and 19 rebounds with three assists in a 55-52 victory over a solid Bulldogs’ squad.
The O’Dowd stats that caught our eye were a monster double-double 20 points and 22 rebounds with four assists, four steals and two blocks in a 54-34 victory. There’s a rematch with the Dragons to played this week (Wednesday) that is not included. Heading into that game, Trinity had gone for 30 or more points four times this season with a high water mark of 38 in a 70-43 win over California of San Ramon. On the season she was averaging 23.9 points, 16.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 3.0 steals and 2.0 blocks per game.
According to Gardere, most of the Pac-12 schools have shown interest in Trinity including Cal, Washington and Washington State. Georgetown has made an offer and all the western mid-major conference schools have an interest in Zamora as well.
Carter Glick of Mt. Whitney was MVP early in the season at the Immanuel of Reedley tournament. Photo: @pioneermwbball / Twitter.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Carter Glick (Mt. Whitney, Visalia) Sr.
Our destination in search of the Northern California Boys Basketball Player of the Week takes us to “The Valley” as the locals affectionately call the CIF Central Section.
Visalia is where we land, just off Highway 99 about 45 miles south of Fresno and 80 miles north of Bakersfield. At Mt. Whitney, we find a 6-foot-2 guard who is a chip of the old block named Glick, and when he clicks the Pioneers are pretty hard to beat. In fact, with Glick clicking Mt. Whitney was a perfect 26-0 heading into a Tuesday night matchup with nearby Lemoore. The Pioneers saw their unblemished record end, but they already had an earlier win over Lemoore, have already clinched the West Yosemite League title and it’s still been an outstanding season for them and for Glick.
Mt. Whitney doesn’t report stats but thanks to a nomination from Cal-Hi Sports longtime friend and contributor and Central Section historian Bob Barnett, who wrote up Carter in his weekly milestones feature we get, we know of Carter’s exploits.
Last week, in a 59-40 West Yosemite League victory over neighboring Hanford, Glick went for a career high 32 points. He followed that up with 26 points in a 53-42 league win over crosstown rival El Diamante. Carter also was nominated to be a player of the week by the Visalia Times-Delta when he led the Pioneers to the title of the Polly Wilhelmsen tournament.
We said a chip off the old block earlier since Glick’s father, Jason Glick, was a star at Mt. Whitney from 1989-1991 and scored 1,581 career points, the second most in school history.
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
