Two of our first State Players of the Week are Vaughn Zargarian from Crescenta Valley of La Crescenta and Lauren Harris from Faith Christian of Yuba City. Photos: Crescenta Valley HS Basketball / Facebook.com & ncsasports.org.
It’s our first set of honorees this season for boys and girls basketball. If you didn’t know, it’s the same NorCal/SoCal designations as in past years but all four players also are now considered State Players of the Week. We begin with stops in La Crescenta and San Jose for the boys and then head to Yuba City and Lakewood for the girls.
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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
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Vaughn Zargarian (Crescenta Valley, La Crescenta) Sr.
It’s the senior year for Vaughn at Crescenta Valley and he’s playing for his dad, head coach Shawn Zargarian, who’s been the head coach of the Falcons for 20 years. It’s been a phenomenal start for Vaughn.
Through his first eight games (the 5-3 team isn’t shown for any games until next week), Zargarian is averaging 36.1 ppg with 10.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists. He’s the No. 2 reported scoring leader in the state via MaxPreps. He also recently celebrated scoring the 1,000th point of his varsity career.
Zargarian’s best outing so far came in a 88-74 loss to Westlake of Westlake Village. In that game, he hit on 9-of-14 shots from the three-point arc and finished with 45 points. In last week’s games, Vaughn had 38 points in an easy win vs University Prep Value of Los Angeles, and then it was 40 points with 12 rebounds and five assists as the Falcons blew out Canoga Park, 83-33. The week concluded with Zargarian going for 34 points with 12 rebounds and eight assists in a 70-55 triumph vs Marshall of Los Angeles.
Crescenta Valley has had its share of prolific scorers over the years, led by Greg Goorjian, who held the state single season record with 1,259 points from 1978 to 1989. Perhaps Vaughn is on his way to joining the school’s elite.
Bella Harmon averaged almost a triple-double last season at her former school. Photo: Buena Park HS / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Bella Harmon (St. Joseph, Lakewood) Jr.
We head down south from La Crescenta to our next stop this week in Lakewood, just south of the 91 freeway and west of the 605. The Jesters, an all-girls school, also aren’t far from St. John Bosco of Bellflower, an all-boys school, and their girls are the ones who are cheerleaders for the Braves.
If Bella’s name is familiar, it’s because she previously attended Buena Park High and was one of the top players for that team the past two seasons. She was on the 2024 all-state sophomores as one of 13 on second team to go with 12 on first team. Harmon also was named first team All-Orange County last season.
Harmon’s totals from a Tuesday rout this week of Bishop Conaty-Loretto weren’t yet available, but it doesn’t matter. She’s been honored for what she’s done in her first four games at St. Joseph. Bella ended last week by scoring 29 points, snagging 23 rebounds and getting eight steals in a 58-27 win vs Ramona Convent. The night before, Harmon had 37 points, 25 rebounds, seven assists and seven steals to lead the Jesters past El Segundo, 69-57. She also had 37 points in a 62-39 victory last week vs Arcadia.
For the season, the 6-foot-1 forward who can play point guard, is averaging 33.3 points, 22.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 5.5 steals per game.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Lauren Harris (Faith Christian, Yuba City) Jr.
We begin our search for the first NorCal girls player of the week in the Sutter County twin cities of Yuba City & Marysville and it’s at Faith Christian where we find a player who was a frequent state stat star last season as a sophomore and landed on the all-state D5 team at the end.
Lauren first came to attention as a freshman two years ago when she played alongside senior sister Audrey Harris, who was one of the state’s leading scorers as a junior but dropped off as senior when the two girls more evenly divided the scoring load.
So far this year, Harris has been a triple-double machine. She ended last week with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a 69-54 win vs Yuba City High. Harris didn’t quite get one the night before with 19 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists in a 54-41 win vs Marysville. She had another one last week, however, with 31 points, 15 rebounds and 13 steals in a 67-32 victory against Lindhurst of Olivehurst.
Last season as a sophomore, Lauren connected for 28.7 ppg to go along with 13.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists. So far this season (next game is Thursday vs Calaveras of San Andreas), she is averaging 26.6 ppg.
Will Corbett is already looking like one of the top point guards in the Bay Area for this season. Photo: Ethan Kassell / BayAreaPrepInsiders.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Will Corbett (Bellarmine Prep, San Jose) Jr.
There could be another solid early season outing for Will that we’re missing as his totals for 3-0 Bellarmine’s win on Tuesday vs Monte Vista of Danville (which was 4-1 entering the night) were not yet reported.
Corbett ended his sophomore season helping the Bells reach the CIF NorCal D2 semifinals where they fell to Oakland High and by just three points. Corbett, a crafty point guard, had 20 points in a 62-60 overtime win in the second round vs Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland. He was named first team All-West Catholic Athletic League, a strong honor as a sophomore in the best league in Northern California.
To start this season, Corbett didn’t have to do much in Bellarmine’s 66-29 win vs Half Moon Bay but still ended with 16 points, seven assists and five rebounds. He had 30 points in his second game, which was a 56-41 victory over Fremont of Oakland at the NorCal Ultimate Challenge.
Corbett also is coming into this season after enjoying a strong summer played for the Jalen Green Elite travel program. He had numerous writeups on recruiting platforms and is started to get mid-level D1 recruiting interest.
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.
