Two of our NorCal/SoCal players of the week are Teiano Hardee from Vanden of Fairfield and Mackenzie Curtis from El Capitan of Lakeside. Photos: hornetsports.com & Twitter.com.
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Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. This is the second week for basketball honorees. This feature too a break for the Holidays and now returns after the conclusion of major tournaments just before New Year’s day. To nominate someone by 12 noon on most Mondays, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Teiano Hardee (Vanden, Fairfield) Sr.
For our Northern California boys award winner we land just outside the gates of Travis Air Force Base around 50 miles northeast of San Francisco on Interstate 80 and 35 miles southwest of Sacramento. It’s slated to be a quarantine place for people who’ve returned from travel to China amid the current flu outbreak, but the only thing sick surrounding Hardee are his moves around the basket.
We saw Hardee two weeks ago across I-80 from the school at the Crush in the Valley at Solano College, and in a win over Sacramento, the Vikings’ 6-foot-5 senior captain was content to dish the ball and finished with just seven points to go with seven assists.
Last week, in a 92-69 victory over cross-town arch rival Fairfield, it was Hardee that took center stage after he led four Vikings players in double-figure scoring with 32 points.
Vanden improved to 19-6 and 6-1 in the Monticello Empire League entering a contest on Tuesday against Vacaville (which handed the Vikings a loss earlier this season).
Hardee was the MVP of the MEL as a junior with averages of 22.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. He also set a school record with a 43-point game and then in his next outing hit for 42. The four-year varsity player had D1 college offers and last November signed a letter of intent with Sacramento State.
This year’s stats for Vanden aren’t easily available, but Teiano has had some similar games and this week after the 32-point showing wound up being a good week to send out some props in his direction.
Soto is presented a ball from Strathmore head coach Richard Miranda recognizing her for 2,000 career points. Photo: Charles Whisnand / recorderonline.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Jazmine Soto (Strathmore) Jr.
Every time we land in the CIF Central Section we get to remind readers that for all our Player of the Week honors for all sports “The Valley” as the locals call the Central Section, is considered Northern California.
So for this week’s Northern California Girls Player of the Week choice, we head to Tulare County to a farming town of around 3,000 with a name that in Scottish translates to “broad valley.”
We could have honored Soto previously with what the junior guard has done this season, and last week she was part of our weekly Stat Stars feature for what she did two weeks ago, so last week was almost like another couple of days at the office for Jazmine.
Soto started last week with 34 points, seven steals, four rebounds and three assists in an 81-37 victory over Granite Hills of Porterville. She followed that up with 31 points, nine steals, three rebounds and three assists in a 59-25 victory over Woodlake.
So far this week, Soto is already on the go after a season-high 42 points with eight steals in a 63-43 victory over Corcoran.
So far this season for the 23-3 Spartans, their captain is averaging a reported Central Section leading 29.7 points that is also third in the state, 5.9 rebounds, 5.3 steals and 1.9 assists per game. She has gone over 30 points 14 times and has four double-doubles.
Despite only being a junior, the small school scoring machine has 2,163 career points, and if she keeps up a similar pace the rest of this season and next year, Soto will almost assuredly reach the 3,000-point career scoring mark.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Mackenzie Curtis (El Capitan, Lakeside) Jr.
For our Southern California Girls Player of the Week stop, we head to the CIF San Diego Section to the area known as the East County to a school that is shadowed by a 3,700-foot El Cajon granite mountain that is also referred to as El Capitan, just like the school’s name.
In Lakeside, we find a 5-foot-10 junior wing who has been lighting up the scoreboard all season. Last week, in a big win over West Hills of Santee, Curtis brought bliss to the Vaqueros’ faithful after posting 33 points. Makenzie followed that up with 25 points and seven rebounds with four assists in a 64-39 victory over Helix of La Mesa.
So far this season, Curtis is averaging 24.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.8 assists per game, and she has 51 three-pointers. She’s been over 30 points six times for the 16-8 (5-0 Grossmont Hills League) Vaqueros and had a season-high 42 points (15 rebounds) in a non-league loss to El Cajon Foothills Christian. Mackenzie also has had five double-doubles this season and her per game scoring average is the top reported mark in the San Diego Section.
Heading into a Tuesday night Grossmont Hills showdown with El Cajon Grossmont, Curtis was closing in on the 2,000-point career scoring mark. She entered that contest with 1,861 points.
MacLean is setting three-point shooting and scoring records for one season in leading Westlake to a league title that already has been clinched. Photo: @_WestlakeHoops / Twitter.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Kyle MacLean
(Westlake, Westlake Village) Sr.
We head to the far western reaches of Los Angeles County to the border with Ventura County to find this outstanding player. There we honor a 6-foot-2 senior guard who now adds a statewide Southern California Player of the Week award to his being named the L.A. Daily News Athlete of the Week.
Last week, MacLean, the son of UCLA and Pac-12 all-time leading scorer and former nearby Simi Valley star Don MacLean, had 32 points, including his team’s final six points, in a 72-67 win over Calabasas that earned the Warriors their first Marmonte title since 2014.
MacLean came back later in the week with 20 points in a 75-42 rout of crosstown arch-rival Oaks Christian that improved the Westlake record to 23-4 and 7-0 in league.
Prior to the Oaks Christian game, MacLean, who missed all but six games last season with a broken wrist, was averaging 22.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game this season. Plus, he had a school record 93 three-pointers.
On a final note, MacLean also puts up big numbers in the classroom where the student-athlete is carrying a 4.5 GPA.
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
