Two of this week’s SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week are Shalexxus Aaron of Riverside M.L. King and Jules Bernard of L.A. Windward. Photos: Twitter.com & Ronnie Flores.
One of this week’s honorees is proving that there is more than just one big-time player headed to the USC women’s program. She’s also going where her older brother already plays. Other choices this week are from Los Angeles, Oakland and Richmond.
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Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To find out how your business could benefit by sponsoring these honors each week or to nominate someone by 12 noon on most Mondays, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Jules Bernard
(Windward, Los Angeles) Jr.
Windward head coach Colin Pfaff told the L.A. Daily News earlier this season that “Jules’ versatility is critical to us, he can do everything” and he has been doing everything all season long so far.
Heading into this week, the Wildcats were off to a 13-3 start. A double-double machine all season. he had 27 points and 14 rebounds in their 2016 ending 70-57 win over Leuzinger of Lawndale to earn All-Tournament honors at the Classic at Damien.
Earlier in the same tourney, Bernard also had games of 33 points with 18 rebounds in a 70-65 win over Rancho Cucamonga and 31 points and 19 rebounds vs. Vista or Knight of Palmdale.
Bernard will now be counted on even more the rest of the season as the Wildcats have lost guard Jalen Harris for the rest of the season with an injury. Considered by some as one of the top juniors in the state, he has offers from multiple schools including Cal, Oregon and UCLA.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Shalexxus Aaron
(M.L. King, Riverside) Sr.
Shalexxus is the kid sister of USC’s Shaqquan Aaron, who many in the state will remember once as a promising freshman at Mater Dei (Santa ana) in 2011 before he and the family eventually settled near Seattle.
After averaging 18.1 points and 5.5 rebounds last year at Juanita High in Kirkland, Wash., Aaron is now starring at M.L. King.
In a 72-36 win last week over Cajon of San Bernardino that pushed the Wolves to 15-0 and earned them the Ramona Winter Classic title, Shalexxus was the tourney MVP and hit for 29 points.
Earlier in the season, she was MVP at the Mustang Classic after she scored 34 points and had 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a title game win vs. Roosevelt of Eastvale.
Aaron already was highly regarded college prospect in Washington and committed to USC before she arrived at M.L. King. She will join the Trojans next season as a freshman alongside leading Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year candidate Destiny Littleton of La Jolla Bishop’s.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Souley Boum
(Oakland Tech, Oakland) Sr.
Bringing the boom on the court this season, he has followed up last season’s 21.2 points per game average by averaging 23.9 points a game as the Bulldogs were out to an 11-3 record to start this week, led by their senior guard.
During a 67-59 win over Folsom last week, he showed he can more than just score as he had 29 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals. One day later he had 35 points, four rebounds, five assists and six steals during a 74-67 win over Washington of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Boum’s season high this season so far was 38 points during a 80-78 win over El Cerrito. Back in September, he committed to the University of San Francisco Dons.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Cali Fuller
(Kennedy, Richmond) Jr.
Following up a sophomore season that saw her get some varsity action and average 14.1 points per game, Cali has been even more impressive to start her junior season.
At the beginning of this week, Fuller is averaging 26.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 8.4 steals and 7.4 assists per game during the Eagles’ 8-5 start to the season.
Two days before Christmas, she had her biggest offensive performance of the season when she scored 40 points during a 72-71 win over Skyline of Oakland while just missing a triple-double with 10 rebounds, nine assists and seven steals.
Fuller already has three triple-doubles on the season and it should be just a matter of time before her first quadruple-double. She came up just two steals short of one earlier this season.
College opportunities aren’t known for the 5-foot-10 guard, but it sure would be fun if down the road Cali Fuller played for Cal State Fullerton.
Stockton office assistant editor Paul Muyskens also contributed to this post. 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
