Two of our honorees for this week are C.J. Aldrich from Rancho Buena Vista of Vista and Terri’A Russell of Oakland Tech. Photos: X.com & Fresh Coast Hoops TV / YouTube.com.
It’s our second group of honorees this season for boys and girls basketball. We’ll do another foursome next week on Christmas Eve, take a break for New Year’s and then we’ll be back going week-to-week for the rest of the season. This week’s stops are in Kerman and Vista for the boys and then we go to Oakland and San Diego 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 Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Terri’A Russell (Oakland Tech, Oakland) Jr.
We begin this week heading to one of the top girls basketball programs in the state. Head coach LeRoy Hurt’s program won its most recent CIF state title in 2023 in D1 and he had two promising freshmen on the roster — Russell and classmate Jhai Johnson. The Bulldogs also have three other CIF state titles in their history and have been NorCal regional champions five times.
Russell is a 6-foot-1 junior who is out to a very strong start this season. In her two games last week, she had 24 points in a 62-39 victory vs Lowell of San Francisco and then 25 points as Oakland Tech topped a Clovis High squad, 54-49, that should be among the top teams in the CIF Central Section this season.
So far this season, heading into a Tuesday matchup vs McNair of Stockton, Terri’A has been averaging 19.7 ppg. She’s improved as a rebounder and defender as well.
Teammate Johnson continues to get a lot of attention as one of the state’s top Class of 2026 recruits, and deservedly so. Russell is making it extra-hard so far for any opposing defenses to focus too much on Jhai. The 5-2 team does have a loss to Vanden of Fairfield and another to De La Salle of New Orleans, La., but also is going to play a challenging schedule in tournaments and showcase events in the next few weeks.
Daniel Bibioff of Kerman had a defensive play that helped his team win a CIF section title last season but is scoring this year at a record pace. Photo: Hudl.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Daniel Bibioff (Kerman) Sr.
We don’t need to look up Kerman’s location like we do for many of our weekly players of the week because we just did that a couple of weeks ago when the school’s football team was selected to play in a NorCal regional championship after winning the CIF Central Section D3 championship. Kerman isn’t far to the west of Fresno and was the furthest north school to win a section football title along with Central of Fresno in D1-AA.
Speaking of section titles, Bibioff made a name for himself in last season’s CIF Central Section D4 basketball final when he came up with a steal in the final seconds to give the Lions a 61-60 win vs Kerman.
Perhaps because of that momentum from last season, Daniel has erupted as a scoring machine this season. The 6-foot-2 senior guard had 41 points in his first game vs Sanger West and last week he remained on fire.
In a 70-50 win last week vs Chavez of Delano, Bibioff poured in 38 points. He then ended with week with a 51-point explosion in a 81-39 triumph over Firebaugh. Entering a game later this week vs Madera, Daniel is averaging 36.3 points to rank among the leading reported scorers in the state. He also was averaging 4.8 rebounds and 3.8 steals per game.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
C.J. Aldrich (Rancho Buena Vista, Vista) Jr.
We head to San Diego County due east of the City of Oceanside and a few miles west of the 78 highway at a school in Vista that is known right now for having alums coaching in MLB (Dave Roberts of the Dodgers) and in the NBA (Jamahl Mosley of the Orlando Magic). It’s there where we find Aldrich, a junior combo guard who is pumping in nearly 28 ppg so far this season.
Not all of C.J.’s games are reported, including a Monday game this week vs Canyon Crest Academy, and he and the Longhorns have a game on Wednesday vs Orange Glen of Escondido. In a 54-51 win last week vs Dana Hills of Dana Point at the San Juan Hills Invitational, Aldrich knocked down 30 points and he had 18 rebounds and five assists. In another game last week in the same tourney, C.J. had 31 points, eight rebounds and three assists to lead RBV past Daramalan College of Australia.
Aldrich, who really came on toward the end of last season, had a strong summer and just picked up an offer from UC San Diego, started this season with 40 points in a win vs Linfield Christian of Temecula. His reported scoring average as of Tuesday of this week stood at 27.9 ppg.
Lindsay Biddle was the leading scorer for 21-11 team at Rancho Bernardo last season. Photo: FOX 5 San Diego.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Lindsay Biddle
(Rancho Bernardo, San Diego) Jr.
One would have to head east on highway 78 and then south on I-15 to get from Rancho Buena Vista to Rancho Bernardo, which has a San Diego address but is just as much known locally for being part of the Poway Unified School District.
It’s at Rancho Bernardo where we find this week’s SoCal girls basketball honoree. Entering a Wednesday game this week vs Calexico, the Broncos have posted a 10-1 record. Biddle is a 5-foot-10 junior who plays shooting guard and has jumped her scoring average this season from 14.9 as a sophomore to 23.5 so far.
As a sophomore last season, Lindsay also helped Rancho Bernardo to a 21-11 record and to a spot in the CIF SoCal D3 regional playoffs. She was named to second team all-state for D3 on our annual all-state teams.
Biddle had 26 points last week in a 54-22 victory by the Broncos over Sage Creek of Carlsbad. She also had 29 points last week in a 79-21 romp vs Mt. Carmel of San Diego. In earlier games this season, Lindsay had 31 points in games vs Torrey Pines of San Diego and Murrieta Valley of Murrieta.
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.
