Two of this week’s honorees are seniors Mark Lavrenov of Rocklin (left) and Anna Shreeve from San Juan Hills of SJ Capistrano. Photos: Nathaniel Levine / Sacramento Bee & Ryan Kuhn / SOCoPrepSports.com.
We’ve reached that point in the season in which CIF section playoffs are going on everywhere in the state, which means choosing players of the week from winning teams still in action gets more challenging. Regardless, we have four more very worthy honorees. The spotlight is on those from Rocklin and Merced in Northern California and then North Hollywood and San Juan Capistrano in Southern 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 Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Mark Lavrenov (Rocklin) Sr.
We start this week at a South Placer County school in the Sacramento suburbs that is north of the sprawling Galleria Shopping Mall in Roseville. It’s there where a 6-foot-9 center has been a dominanting presence on the basketball court for the last several seasons.
Lavrenov had one of the best weeks of his career last week. It was a ho-hum 15-point, 16-rebound outing to lead the Thunder past Davis, 64-40, but that just set the stage for the second game. In a 77-46 win that the Rocklin faithful loved against arch-rival school Whitney of Rocklin, Lavrenov pumped it up for 31 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. Not only that, but the big night put him at more 2,000 points for his career. Former UCLA center Brendan Lane is the only other player in Rocklin history to have scored 2,000 career points.
The Sacramento Bee also included Lavrenov in a list of top big men in local history. The future Sacramento State Hornet was one of the top players at Rocklin last season for a team that began 21-0 and ended 28-4. The two wins last week pushed the Thunder to 12-2 in the Sierra Foothill League and to 20-8 overall. They are the No. 2 seed for the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D2 playoffs.
So far this season, Laverenov is averaging 23.4 points and 12.2 rebounds per game. He had 33 points and 19 rebounds in a game vs Whitney earlier this season and had a season high of 41 points in a win vs Laguna Creek.
Bella Ewing (10) from Stone Ridge Christian of Merced stands in a team photo that has been cropped. Photo: Stone Ridge Christian athletics / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Bella Ewing
(Stone Ridge Christian, Merced) Soph.
We head to Merced County in the central part of the state to look for our NorCal girls honoree for this week. Stone Ridge Christian has a Merced address but is in the small community of Franklin that is right about halfway between the city of Merced and the city of Atwater.
Ewing has been on our radar for scoring leaders in NorCal and the state for most of the season and that means we’re looking for 30-point games. Since she had two of them in her two games last week, that was enough to use this week’s slot for her. The 5-foot-8 sophomore had 32 points in a 58-20 win vs LeGrand and went for 30 points in a 58-20 victory against Waterford.
The Knights finished up a 10-2 record in the Southern League with the two wins, good for second-place behind Mariposa. They will play Stockton Christian on Tuesday in the first round of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D6 playoffs. Ewing will take a streak of five straight 30-point games into the playoffs. She has increased her scoring average during this recent spurt to 24.6 ppg. Bella had her season high of 34 points in a recent loss to East Nicolaus of Nicolaus.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Anna Shreeve (San Juan Hills, SJ Capistrano) Sr.
It’s pretty certain that at the South Orange County school of San Juan Hills that the coaches and players would all say that, “They believe in Shreeve.”
The senior guard has been a standout for the Stallions for four years and she had a strong outing last week in a 68-56 win over Diamond Bar in the CIF Southern Section D2AA playoffs. Shreeve not only led the way in scoring with 30 points, but she set a school record by coming up with 11 steals on defense.
Anna’s game-by-game stats for this season are not reported on MaxPreps, but from following her this season she’s had some other outings similar to last week’s. Back in December, she became just the second player in San Juan Hills history to record a triple-double.
The Utah Valley-bound student-athlete averaged 19.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.5 steals as a junior. San Juan Hills hopes her career doesn’t end this week in in a CIFSS quarterfinal playoff game vs. Oak Park. A win also would qualify the Stallions for the CIF SoCal regional playoffs.
Isaiah Johnson of Campbell Hall didn’t just score 43 points in a game last week, but he scored 43 points against a team that was in the State TOP 30 rankings. Photo: Instagram @chboysbasketball.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Isaiah Johnson
(Campbell Hall, North Hollywood) Sr.
For our final stop this week, we head to the San Fernando Valley near where Laurel Canyon Boulevard meets the 101 freeway and near the boundaries of North Hollywood and Studio City. It’s there where we find a high-scoring senior guard who is the son of legendary NBA trainer Chris Johnson, who has worked with many of the greatest players in the game.
It’s obvious that Isaiah has been paying attention as well. After a huge summer that helped him land a signed scholarship from the University of Colorado, he’s been having breakout games for the Vikings.
Two weeks ago, Isaiah had 39 points and made 17 of 19 free throws in a win against league rival Brentwood of Los Angeles that was played at the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood. That win also avenged an earlier loss. He had one of the most impressive outings of the season in the state last week with 43 points to lead Campbell Hall past Crespi of Encino in the CIFSS D1 playoffs.
Crespi came into last week at No. 19 in the state, but with the loss to Isaiah’s team had its season come to an end. The Vikings moved up No. 23 in this week’s rankings with a 19-9 record and will play Crean Lutheran of Irvine on Tuesday in the quarterfinal. A win would not only put Campbell Hall in the semifinals, but qualifies the team into the CIF SoCal regional playoffs.
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
