Two of this week’s statewide honors have gone to Glendora’s Rylie Anderson (left) and to St. Mary’s of Stockton’s Cayden Ward. Photos: Hudl.com & Twitter.com.
We’ve got one of the top grid-hoopers in Northern California plus three players who are putting their stamps on their school scoring records in the spotlight for this week’s honors. Our stops are in Stockton and Lincoln in Northern California, while in Southern California we go to Glendora and Dana Hills.
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Notes: There will be no players of the week next week due to the Christmas holiday. For these honors, we also consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Player of the Week
Cayden Ward (St. Mary’s, Stockton) Sr.
We begin our stops this week a few miles from our home office in Stockton at St. Mary’s where we honor one of the top grid-hoop athletes in Northern California.
Just a few days after the 11-2 St. Mary’s football team lost in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D2 championship to Rocklin, Ward was on the court for the Rams. He had a senior season in which he caught 31 passes for 507 yards and seven TDs. He’s now doing even better in hoops.
A 6-foot-5 guard/forward, Ward earned his second tourney MVP award of the season in last week’s Aptos/Santa Cruz Warriors Invitational. He had 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists in the first game (61-59 win vs Aptos) and then he had 18 points with six rebounds and six assists in the semifinals (55-52 win vs Los Gatos). In the title game, Cayden hit a go-ahead 30-foot three-pointers with 30 seconds left to break a 50-50 tie and finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds and five assists as the Rams topped Half Moon Bay, 54-50.
For the season, Ward is averaging 17.3 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists and St. Mary’s also has improved its record to 12-2.
It was not the usual sign held up for Lincoln’s Maya Hodge after she scored the 1,000th point of her career last week. Photo: Twitter.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Player of the Week
Maya Hodge (Lincoln) Sr.
For this week’s stop to find the NorCal girls honoree, we head out to South Placer County to a school known for its unique nickame (Fighting Zebras).
Hodge’s stats are not up-to-date on MaxPreps, but we were able to collect her highlights from local media and assistant coach’s tweets. The bottom line is that the senior standout had her 1,000th career point in one game and then a quadruple-double in her next game.
The week began modestly for Hodge with 17 points in a 62-12 win vs Foothill of Sacramento. In that game, though, she went past the 1,000-point mark for scoring in her career. In the next outing, when the Fighting Zebras downed Del Campo of Fair Oaks, 69-10, Maya had 23 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals. Her week concluded with 22 points and 10 rebounds in a 59-32 victory against River Valley of Yuba City.
Hodge, who is going to play in college at Cornell College in Iowa and has a 4.0 GPA, averaged 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists per game during her junior season.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Player of the Week
Rylie Anderson (Glendora) Sr.
A town not far to the east in the San Gabriel Valley from where the Rose Parade was just held in Pasadena is where we go to find the latest SoCal girls hoops winner.
Like many of these we spotlight, Rylie has had an outstanding four-year career to go with having an especially potent scoring night. For her, the 30 points she scored last week in a 77-40 triumph against Burroughs of Burbank pushed her career scoring total to 1,353 points and set a new girls record at Glendora. She had 25 points earlier in the season when the Tartans defeated Rancho Cucamonga, 53-51, to win the Kaiser tournament and the win over Burroughs gave them a 14-game win streak (which was snapped in the next game last week in a loss to Fairmont Prep of Anaheim).
Glendora coach, Adam Nunemaker: “What Rylie has done has been an incredible accomplishment,” Glendora head coach Adam Nunemaker told the 210prepsports.com web site. “She has reached such an amazing individual award by being the ultimate leader, teammate and friend to everyone in our program. She is an inspiration to everyone on and off the floor.”
Collin Haugh of Dana Hills was the reported scoring leader for Orange County last season as a junior. Photo: Zach Cavanaugh / Dana Point Times.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Player of the Week
Collin Haugh (Dana Hills, Dana Point) Jr.
The final stop this week is at a South Orange County beach town that is north of San Clemente but south of Laguna Beach and has a harbor that has some great restaurants and boutiques.
Haugh has been making waves for the boys basketball team since last season when he was among the leading scorers in Southern California and broke the Dana Hills’ single-game scoring record more than once. Last week at the Desert Holiday Classic, Collin got the week started by breaking his own record once again with 47 points in a 88-56 victory over Highland of Lancaster. He had 46 in a game last season vs Leuzinger of Lawndale.
Collin still had three games to go at the Desert Holiday Classic and led the Dolphins to the tourney title. He had 28 points in a 90-80 win over Simi Valley, then 29 in a 70-45 win against Lodi (of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section) and then 25 in the title game where Dana Hills topped Liberty of Brentwood (CIF North Coast Section), 71-65.
For the season, Haugh is averaging 23.9 ppg. As a freshman starter two seasons ago, he got to play alongside older brother Griffin, who is currently at Graceland University, an NAIA program in Iowa.
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
