Two of this week’s honorees are Luke Isaak from San Ramon Valley of Danville and Onyekachi Nwanze of Cerritos. Photos: @BasketballSrv / Twitter.com & Inside The Wubble / YouTube.com.
This week’s foursome has been selected also because they weren’t in any CIF section playoff games on Monday night and all four will be going this week — two in section semifinals and two who already have punched their tickets for section title games. Our stops this week are in Cerritos and Hollywood for Southern California and then Danville and Sacramento for Northern California.
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Notes: For these honors, we also consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Player of the Week
Onyekachi Nwanze (Cerritos) Sr.
Our first stop this week is in Los Angeles County not far from Cerritos College where some of the most memorable CIF state track championships have ever been held and not far from where the 605 and 91 freeways connect.
Nwanze gained an athlete of the week honor in January from the Long Beach Press-Telegram for scoring 34 points and grabbing 19 rebounds in a win against Pioneer of Whittier. Now, the 6-foot senior lands the selection for all of Southern California. The outing that did it was even better than the one in January as Nwanze poured in 39 points and pulled down 23 rebounds to lead the Dons past Cantwell Sacred Heart of Montebello last week, 70-67, in the CIF Southern Section D3AA semifinals.
In the quarterfinal round of the same playoffs, Onyekachi was almost as dominant during a 72-59 triumph against Dos Pueblos of Goleta. She finished with 29 points and 17 rebounds.
Scoring averages for Nwanze are not on MaxPreps, but in another reported outing in January she had 28 points and 17 rebounds when Cerritos topped Whitney of Cerritos, 64-60, in a 605 League contest.
Two years ago as a sophomore, Onyekachi had eight points, 14 rebounds and three blocks for Cerritos when lost to La Salle of Pasadena in the CIFSS D3AA championship. She and her teammates will look to win that same title again later this week vs Oak Park.
Troy Agtang will look to lead Bernstein of Hollywood to the CIF L.A. City Section D4 championship later this week. Photo: Bernstein HS / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Player of the Week
Troy Agtang (Bernstein, Hollywood) Sr.
Our next stop is just to the west of the 101 freeway in Hollywood and right next door to the corporate offices of streaming giant Netflix. That’s some pretty bright lights and normally these honors don’t go to anyone from one of the smaller schools in the CIF L.A. City Section but this week we decided to mix it up a bit.
Agtang began his senior season by scoring 43 points in a win vs. Mendez of Los Angeles and then battled some injuries that caused him to miss some games. In last week’s CIF L.A. City D4 semifinals, Agtang had his second highest scoring game of the season with 37 points and had four rebounds and four assists to lead the Dragons past Wilson of Los Angeles, 86-46.
In this week’s L.A. City D4 finals, Troy and his teammates (26-5) will take on Math & Sciences College Prep of L.A, which will enter with a 23-7 record.
Agtang, who also has made as many as 10 three-pointers in one game, is averaging 20.0 ppg. He’s made 40 percent of his three-point shots and is shooting 65 percent overall.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Player of the Week
Luke Isaak (San Ramon Valley, Danville) Jr.
East Bay Athletic League rival Granada of Livermore will be glad if it doesn’t have to see Isaak and the Wolves for the rest of the season. The 6-foot-5 junior lit up the Matadors for 25 points when the two State TOP 25 teams faced off in the EBAL playoffs and then last week they played again in the CIF North Coast Section Open Division playoffs. Isaak did even better with 28 points and 10 rebounds as San Ramon Valley moved on with a 77-68 victory.
Isaak and the team’s four-year starting guard, Seamus Deeley, have been as terrific of a 1-2 punch among any teams in Northern California this season. Deeley had 20 points and Isaak 11 when the team won the EBAL title on Feb. 10 with a 68-59 triumph over De La Salle of Concord (which had won earlier over SRV in the regular season).
San Ramon Valley first showed its legitimacy as one of the top teams in Northern California when it ventured down to Southern California in December and captured the Gold Division title at The Classic at Damien. In the championship game vs Dixie of Utah, Isaak canned a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer and finished with 17 points in earning tourney MVP honors. Deeley had 19 points in the same game.
It may be tough for the Wolves to keep their winning ways going on Wednesday in the semifinals of the NCS Open Division since the opponent will be NorCal No. 1 and state No. 6 Salesian of Richmond. They will be in the CIF NorCal regional playoffs (most likely in D1) and in that field could make a deep run similar to the one that Granada went on last year before it lost in the state final to Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.
Leilani Edinburgh of West Campus (Sacramento) has proved she can score 20 points or more in even the most low scoring of games. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Player of the Week
Leilani Edinburgh
(West Campus, Sacramento) Sr.
Our final stop this week is at a school that has won a pair of CIF state titles in girls basketball in its history (2017, 2018) and is located off of Fruitridge Boulevard in South Sacramento.
Edinburgh is one of those players we’ve written up several times as a State Stat Star of the Week over the past three years and is a senior who is running out of weeks to be a player of the week. She’s not a player who scores 30 points, but gets 20 or more with ease and does a lot more on the court.
In a 40-39 win last week over Marysville in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D4 quarterfinals, Leilani led the way with 24 points and also had six rebounds and four assists. It may not be 30 points, 24 in a low-scoring like that would be like 40 or more for a team that scored 80. West Campus will play in the D4 section semifinals on Tuesday vs Escalon. It also was the fourth straight 20-point outing for Edinburgh.
For the season entering the semifinals, Leilani has totals of 20.6 ppg, 4.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 6.0 steals. She’s had two triple-doubles (16 pts, 10 assists, 10 steals vs Valley of Sacramento plus 23 pts, 10 assists and 10 steals vs Foothill of Sacramento). Edinburgh also has had season bests of 27 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals.
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:
