Baron Sabir (left) of Sacramento Sheldon has led team to top ranking in Sacramento Metro area. At right is Aryanna Reyes from Pioneer of Whittier, who has had two 40-point games already this calendar year. Photos: Jose Luis Villegas / Sacramento Bee & X.com.
It’s a straight line of travel this week from Sacramento to Bakersfield to Whittier and finally San Diego County to find this week’s honorees. All four had spectacular single game outings within the past week but they’ve also been solid scorers throughout the season. One of our four also is just a freshman.
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Notes: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Player of the Week
Baron Sabir (Sheldon, Sacramento) Jr.
We start our searches this week on the southeastern side of Sacramento County at a school that has won three NorCal regional titles since 2010, including two back-to-back in the Open Division in 2018 and 2019. The Huskies entered last week at 14-3 and were No. 1 in the Sacramento Bee Metro area rankings with three losses to out-of-area teams.
With Baron leading the way, Sheldon is starting this week in the same spot. It wasn’t the second and third games of last week that got Sabir this week’s honor, although he did have 19 points in a Delta League win vs Pleasant Grove of Elk Grove and then 20 points on Saturday in a showcase win vs Pleasant Valley of Chico. No, it was the first one. In a 80-59 triumph in the Delta League over Monterey Trail of Elk Grove, Baron was bombing from the outside and made 8-of-14 shots on three-pointers and had a career high 41 points.
Sabir had a 40-point explosion in his third game of the season vs Gregori of Modesto and that was after opening up with 33 and 31 points in the first two games.
The 6-foot-5 wing player only averaged 8.6 ppg as a sophomore last season. He’s now up to 24.3 ppg entering a huge Wednesday matchup vs 18-1 Franklin of Elk Grove and has to be ranked as one of the most improved players in Northern California, especially among juniors.
Brielle Medrano is just a freshman but the Bakersfield Christian guard is averaging 20.9 ppg. Photo: Bakersfield Christian Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Player of the Week
Brielle Medrano (Bakersfield Christian) Fr.
From Sacramento, our next stop this week is about four hours south on Highway 99 at Bakersfield Christian, which is a school that just barely lost in the CIF D2-AA state football championship to St. Mary’s of Stockton. The Eagles have outstanding teams this winter in both boys and girls hoops with the girls being led by one of the top freshmen in the CIF Central Section.
Medrano, a 5-foot-4 point guard, is that freshman standout. She had 17 points and seven steals to help Bakersfield Christian get to 16-3 with a win last Saturday against Beckman of Irvine in a showcase. The game that netted Brielle this honor came earlier last week with 34 points, four assists and two steals in a 72-46 victory vs Bakersfield High.
Bakersfield Christian is taking a 16-3 record into a Wednesday game this week vs Garces of Bakersfield. Medrano is the leading scorer at 20.8 ppg and also is averaging 2.9 steals and 2.3 assists. She had 33 points in her second game of the season vs Granada of Livermore and she had 26 points in each of her first two outings in January.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Player of the Week
Aryanna Reyes (Pioneer, Whittier) Sr.
Following our stop to find Brielle Medrano in Bakersfield, we jump back on the 99 south and venture toward Los Angeles, heading down 1-5 toward the 605 freeway in Santa Fe Springs where we exit to the north a few miles to find Pioneer High in Whittier. That’s where we find Aryanna, one of the hottest girls scorers the past few weeks in the state.
Reyes, a 5-foot-4 guard, pumped in a school record 46 points last week to lead the Titans to a 65-54 triumph against Oxford Academy of Cypress. It was a game in which Pioneer started slow with a 10-point deficit in the first quarter, but behind Reyes began pouring it on the rest of the night. Since the start of the new year, Aryanna has had other big outings: 41 points vs Artesia of Lakewood in a win, 26 points vs Glenn of Norwalk in a win, and 32 points vs Cerritos in a loss.
Heading into a Wednesday game this week vs Artesia in a 605 League game for the 7-6 Titans, Reyes has pushed up her per game scoring average to 29.1. In the win vs Glenn, she also had 12 rebounds, seven assists and six steals. Against Oxford Academy, she had 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals to go along with her 46 points.
Ramona’s Tayden Bryant racked up a school record 51 points in game last week vs San Pasqual. Photo: rhs_boys_basketball / Instagram.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Player of the Week
Tayden Bryant (Ramona) Jr.
For our final stop this week, it’s back to I-5 from Whittier, then all the way down to San Diego County where we exit on state route 78 to the east, go through Escondido and keep heading east to the town of Ramona. It’s there where we find Bryant, a dynamic junior guard who put together a record-breaking performance last week to lead the Bulldogs in a 77-43 win against San Pasqual of Escondido.
Bryant scored 19 points in the second quarter of that game and had 28 at halftime. He ended with 51 on 73.7 percent shooting, making 14 of 19 on two-point shots, 5 of 9 on three-pointers and 8 of 9 from the line. The 51-point mark also set a new school record, surpassing the previous record of 48 set in 2017 by Blake Seits in 2017.
In another game last week, Tayden notched 20 points and handed out 10 assists in a 62-53 win vs Mt. Miguel of Spring Valley. There’s been some other explosive outings we found, but the team doesn’t put stats out on MaxPreps and it doesn’t have an X.com page it uses, either. The 51-point game was reported in the San Diego Union-Tribune, then on Tuesday of this week after we had already decided to pick Bryant as a player of the week the Union-Tribune did a feature story on him written by longtime legendary San Diego Section writer/editor Steve Brand, who we know used to live in Ramona.
Bryant’s scoring ability and point guard play will be on display in a matchup on Wednesday of this week vs Mt. Carmel of San Diego. The Bulldogs (13-7) are looking to take over first-place in league standings with a win.
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
One Comment
He has worked so hard . I so happy he has gotten some attention to show it.