SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week

Two of this week’s SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week are Carl Lewis of Lynwood and MaryJane Jones of East Bakersfield. They both had 50-point games. Photos: @Lynwood_bball/Twitter.com & Stephen Hicks/23ABCNews

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Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate someone by 12 noon on most Mondays, email markjtennis@gmail.com. This is our third set of honorees for the 2017-18 season for basketball.

Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Player of the Week

Carl Lewis
(Lynwood) Jr.

At the rate he was scoring and rebounding last week, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say this Carl Lewis is just as quick around the basket as his namesake was in winning all those gold medals at the Olympics as a sprinter.

The biggest difference between the two is the Knights/ junior power forward is 6-foot-10 and weighs around 230 pounds, and rather than the track it’s the glass and paint he dominates.

Lynwood may be struggling a bit at 8-12 after a schedule consisting of some quality opponents, but last week Lewis got them to 3-1 in San Gabriel Valley League action with two huge double-double performances. He had 52 points and 12 rebounds last Wednesday in a 67-54 victory over Downey, and then he came on Friday to better that with 53 points and 15 rebounds in the Knights’ 86-83 win over Dominguez of Compton.

Despite being a junior, Lewis is getting quite a bit of D1 college attention and according to scouting services already has offers from Georgetown, St. John’s and USC.

Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Player of the Week

Will Fiveash
(Hughson) Sr.

Sometimes players from smaller communities in rural areas can fly under the radar so when folks ask “where the heck is Hughson?” the answer is simple.

It’s a farming community surrounded by orchards and is part of the Metropolitan Modesto area around five miles southwest of the city limits just south of the Tuolumne River, but it’s also the home of small school basketball star Will Fiveash.

The old expression “take five” doesn’t apply to Fiveash because for him it’s more like take 30 and 10 since he seems to have a penchant for hitting those marks in points and rebounds this season. Last week, he did it twice. The senior guard started the week with 37 points and 13 rebounds in a 62-54 win against Mountain House, and then came back with 34 points and 11 rebounds in a 65-58 victory over Riverbank.

So far this season, Fiveash has gone for over 30 points eight times with seven of them double-doubles. All told he has nine double-doubles this season and is averaging 26.6 points and 9.5 rebounds for the 12-8 Huskies.

The four-year varsity star has been a double-digit scorer since he was a freshman and currently has 1,406 points in his career.

Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Player of the Week

Erin Jenkins
(Cabrillo, Lompoc)

We’re going to fudge a little bit on this one and use a performance Jenkins already had this week, but it’s for all the right reasons.

Lompoc may be well known as the town adjacent to Vandenberg Air Force base and just north of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, but Cabrillo High has a pretty good girls basketball team this year and Jenkins is a huge part of the Conquistadores’ posting a current 15-2 record and 7-0 in Los Padres League action.

Despite her time being limited in some lopsided wins, the 5-foot-10 senior wing has put up some very impressive numbers this season.

Last week, the reigning Central Coast All-Area Most Valuable Player and Northwest Nazarene University-bound Jenkins had 29 points and nine steals in just 19 minutes of action in a 71-31 victory over Santa Maria. This week, she played a little bit longer in a 67-32 win against Nipomo, and went for a double-double 33 points and 11 rebounds.

So far this season Jenkins is averaging 21.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 3.2 steals per game. So far in her four-year varsity career, Jenkins has scored 1,497 points and snagged 631 rebounds. There’s little doubt Jenkins will score at least three points on Wednesday night against host Morro Bay and now she can celebrate achieving the 1,500 point milestone with the title of Cal-Hi Sports Southern California Girls Player of the Week.

Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Player of the Week

Maryjane Jones
(East Bakersfield, Bakersfield) Sr.

For our NorCal athletes, we include the Valley and while we had a number of nominations this week we went with the nomination of CIF Central Section historian and Cal-Hi Sports friend and contributor Bob Barnett, and doing so we went about as far south as you can go to select a girls winner even in our geographical definition for picking the weekly honorees.

Jones, who according to Bakersfield Californian prep writer Trevor Horn is being recruited by some smaller schools, put herself in the Central Section record book last week and her overall play this season has turned around a program that previous to this year had averaged two wins per season the past seven years.

Last week, in a 74-52 win over Tehachapi, the girl they call “Na Na” went “Yeah Yeah.” She set a school record with 52 points while she also registered a triple-double after snagging 11 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists. According to Barnett, the 52 points is the third highest total in Central Section history.

A couple of teams in the Valley have been able to limit her production a bit in losses in the past week, but already this week Jones had a double-double 32 points and 10 assists with seven rebounds in 63-56 win over Bakersfield North. Jones, who is the leading scorer in Bakersfield, is averaging 23.4 points, 7.0 assists, 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 steals per game for the 11-8 Blades.

Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend