Two of this week’s honorees are E.J. Spillman from Pacifica Christian of Newport Beach and Leilani Olanolan of Riverbank. Photos: Hudl.com & Riverbank HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
With many teams in action on Tuesday night this week in crucial CIF section contests, it’s a challenge to get all of our weekly content out early in the week but we’ve done it with players of the week now done after both new boys and girls state rankings. One of our winners for this week is already in a CIF section final. All four have been red-hot in playoff games so far. They are from San Francisco and Riverbank for Northern California and Newport Beach plus Los Angeles for Southern California.
We hope you enjoy this free post on Cal-Hi Sports.com. For our state rankings packages in boys and girls basketball plus State Stat Stars of the Week, state record updates and special features, please check out our Gold Club membership today. If you’re not a member, CLICK HERE.
CHECK OUT CALGAMESWANTED.COM
Created for Coaches by Coaches for California Varsity High School Head Coaches and Athletic Directors, Start building your schedule with CalGamesWanted.com.
User friendly to take the stress out of scheduling.
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
E.J. Spillman (Pacifica Christian, Newport Beach) Sr.
We start out this week’s travels just to the north of the Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach. It’s there where we find Spillman, a 6-foot-4 senior forward with the bulky frame of a tight end in football but who has hands and feet of an elite tennis player. All of us at Cal-Hi Sports first got a good look at him two years ago when Pacifica Christian played in the CIF Division 2 state championship game at Golden 1 Center when the team fell in that title game to San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno. E.J. was later named all-state D2 second team as a sophomore.
Spillman had the stat sheet spilling over with big numbers in leading the Tritons past Centennial of Corona, 84-80, in two overtimes in last week’s CIF Southern Section D2AA semifinals. Centennial is a well-known program of course that has recently won a pair of CIF Open Division state titles and was and still is viewed as a threat to win a CIF state title in a lower division. The overtime loss did not end the Huskies’ season. They just had a major problem with E.J. He pumped in 33 points and notched a triple-double with 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
The previous season high for Spillman was 30 points and it was a rare individual explosion for a Pacifica Christian player, which usually has very balanced scoring under head coach Jeff Berokoff. Spillman’s overall season scoring average of 14.3 is proof of that. The senior standout has not yet signed with a D1 college program, but he does have offers. His list includes Pepperdine, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly SLO, University of San Diego and UC Riverside.
Maybe we’ll see him in Sacramento again in a couple of weeks. The Tritons are facing league rival Fairmont Prep of Anaheim in the CIFSS D2AA championship this weekend at the Toyota Center in Ontario.
Senior guard Kinidi Curl has been a pearl for the Hamilton High girls over the past two seasons. Photo: lasentinel.net.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Kinidi Curl (Hamilton, Los Angeles) Sr.
Those Damn Yankees could be a refrain heard all this week in the CIF L.A. City Section Open Division playoffs. The Hamilton Yankees, led by Kinidi and teammate Jade Fort, are the top seed in that bracket and won in their first-round game last week, 73-32, over Granada Hills Charter of Granada Hills.
Curl has been averaging 19.1 ppg compared to Jade who has been higher overall at 22.3 ppg. In the big win over Granada Hills, Kinidi had the big night with 30 points, nine assists and seven steals. She is usually the one with lots of assists (her average is 5.8 per game) with teammate Jade getting more of the buckets.
Curl matched her season of 30 points against Venice with the 30 she had against Granada Hills. She almost had a triple-double in her previous game with 17 points, 11 assists and eight steals vs Fairfax of Los Angeles. Kinidi also had 11 assists in a late December tourney game vs Scripps Ranch of San Diego.
Prior to that Scripps Ranch game, Hamilton had a loss to Westlake of Westlake Village. The Yankees haven’t lost since and will take a 15-game winning streak into Tuesday night’s semifinals vs Palisades of Pacific Palisades, a league rival they’ve defeated by eight points and 18 points in earlier matchups this season.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Leilani Olanolan (Riverbank) Jr.
The next stop looking for players of the week takes us to the small town of Riverbank that is located not too far north of Modesto in Stanislaus County. The Bruins didn’t do much in girls hoops until after the pandemic, but in the last few seasons have gone 19-7, 26-5, 22-7 and took a 24-4 record and second seed into this week’s CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D4 semifinals for a matchup with 23-7 third seed Marysville.
There’s a good chance that Riverbank is going to be just as strong or better next season since our NorCal player of the week is a junior point guard who is likely only going to get better herself. Olanolan was on fire in both of Riverbank’s games from last week. She had 32 points with eight steals and six assists in a 63-23 romp past Amador of Sutter Creek and then in the D4 quarterfinals she netted 27 points and had eight assists and five steals to lead the Bruins past Valley Christian of Roseville, 72-61.
For the season, Leilani is averaging 18.9 points and 5.7 assists per game. The game vs Amador was her season high, surpassing the 31 points she had in a win vs Enochs of Modesto. Olanolan also set a school record earlier this season by making nine three-pointers against Calaveras of San Andreas.
We’re sure Olanolan also would like to give a shout out to senior teammate Taylor Macias, who also has been averaging around 19 ppg this season for the Bruins.
The shots have been falling in the last two weeks for University High of San Francisco senior Lucas Lao. Photo: University HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Lucas Lau (University, San Francisco) Jr.
We wrap up our trips around the state this week to a private high school in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco that’s about 10 blocks from an apartment on Gough Street where Cal-Hi Sports founder Nelson Tennis began writing up state record lists for California high school sports in the late 1970s. It’s there where the Runnin’ Red Devils have been a force on the NorCal scene since 2005 under head coach Randy Bessolo. He’s also been instrumental in running the CaliLive sanctioned summer basketball events in Northern California.
University has stamped a ticket to Wednesday’s CIF North Coast Section D2 semifinals against Moreau Catholic of Hayward after a pair of high-scoring wins last week in which Lucas was seemingly connecting on every shot he took. In a 76-68 win over Terra Linda of San Rafael in the second round, Lau racked up 37 points and he handed out seven assists. Then in the quarterfinals he did even better than that with 40 points to lead University past Las Lomas of Walnut Creek, 83-67.
Lucas, who also has a 4.0 GPA, also had 35 points in his previous game before last week, which was against San Domenico of San Anselmo, and in a win that gave the Red Devils their 16th league title in the last 18 seasons. In addition to the 112 points in the last three games, he also has had 19 assists and 16 rebounds.
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
