Two of this week’s SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week are Savannah McMorrow of Winters and Junior Ballard of Lathrop. Photos: Shasta Lake Bulletin & recordnet.com.
A player from Dorsey named Dorsey and a sophomore who is named Junior are among this week’s honorees. The four are from Los Angeles, Long Beach, Lathrop and Winters.
Note: For purposes of this feature, we are considering the CIF Central Section to be in the north.
To nominate a player for next week, email markjtennis@gmail.com by Monday at 12 noon and be sure to include a photo that we can use (which means it’s not from the local newspaper or from another web site).
It’s also a great time to sign up for our Gold Club to see all of our great content. The yearly rate has gone up, but you can now see all of our info, including state record book items for $9.99 covering three months. For details, CLICK HERE.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Lafayette Dorsey (Dorsey, Los Angeles) Sr.
Doing his best to make people think the school is named after himself, Lafayette scored a career-high 37 points during a 90-76 win last Wednesday over rival Crenshaw of Los Angeles with first place in the Coliseum League on the line.
Dorsey also had a tweet of support for earning some sort of weekly honor from Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times, who tweeted that he deserved it for following up his career best night by scoring 27 points during a 93-82 road win against Fremont of Los Angeles.
Dorsey’s father, also named Lafayette Dorsey, was also a standout at Dorsey before going to play at Pepperdine.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Tyler Frierson (Millikan, Long Beach) Jr.
While her numbers may not jump off the page on their own, Frierson has had a solid season for longtime Millikan head coach Lorene Morgan facing strong competition and is now averaging 14.3 points and 13.5 rebounds per game after scoring at least 20 points in back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Opening the week with 20 points and 16 rebounds during a 68-40 win over Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach, the 6-foot-4 center later had her third highest scoring performance this season during a 91-47 win over Jordan of Long Beach with 25 points to go with 10 rebounds and blocked four shots.
Earlier this season, Frierson had 28 points during a win over Bishop Montgomery of Torrance and during a loss to Norco she had 26 points and a season-high 28 rebounds.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Junior Ballard (Lathrop) Soph.
Just one week after we chose Weston Ranch of Stockton point guard Jaelen Ragsdale, we couldn’t resist going for Ballard, who plays at nearby Lathrop and is in the same Valley Oak League.
Ballard, who averaged 10 points per game on Lathrop’s varsity as a freshman last season, gained entry into the State Stat Stars honor roll for a school record 45-point outing earlier this season against Sonora.
Last week, he broke the school record again, with 51 points and he did it in a 80-69 triumph over Sierra of Manteca, the four-time defending league champs and inside Sierra’s gym.
Much like Ragsdale from the previous week, Ballard went nuts in the fourth quarter as he scored 26 of his 51 points and made 10-of-10 from free throw line in just the last 35 seconds of the contest.
So far this season, Ballard is averaging 25.3 points per game.
Cal-HI Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Savannah McMorrow (Winters) Jr.
Whether it’s blocking volleyballs or basketballs, this 6-foot junior has been a standout on the court for the Warriors.
McMorrow had a pair of triple-doubles last week and now has five straight triple-doubles. After just one triple-double in her first 14 games, she has filled the stat sheet on a nightly basis.
She had 14 points, 17 rebounds and 12 blocks during a 42-39 win over Colusa last week and 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 blocks during a 48-38 win over Willows.
The Warriors also tied their longest winning streak of the season with their third straight win. For the year, McMorrow is currently averaging 15.2 points, 12.6 rebounds and 7.5 blocks per game.
Paul Muyskens is the Stockton office assistant editor for Cal-Hi Sports. 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
