Two of this week’s honorees are Auburn Santos (left) from Justin Garza High in Fresno and Quali Giran from Millikan of Long Beach. Photos: jgh_girlsbball / Instagram.com & the562.org.
We didn’t have any entries to track for the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book, which is one of the goals of this feature, but we more than fulfilled the other objective and that is to track and uncover hidden talent for statewide recognition to go with local acknowledgement. It’s also a week we where we visit the CIF Central Section for both our Northern California winners, and we have two freshmen who are honored (one boy, one girl). This week our stops are in Long Beach and Temecula in Southern California, and in Northern California we visit Bakersfield and Fresno.
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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 Southern California
Boys Player of the Week
Quali Giran (Millikan, Long Beach) Fr.
To find the Cal-Hi Sports SoCal boys winner we head just on the other side of the I-405 from Long Beach State and not far northwest of where the 405 and I-605 intersect in Long Beach, and it’s at Millikan High where we find this week’s honoree.
To say that Quali qualified for this week’s award might be a bit of an understatement. Giran was already recognized by several analysts as one of the top freshmen in the state, and has already garnered college offers after leading to Rams to a 19-6 start and a spot on the Bubble in the most recent Cal-Hi Sports state rankings.
Last week was just an example of what he’s been doing all season after he arrived on the scene when the 6-foot-2 guard dropped in 31 points (4-for-4 on three-pointers) in a 67-65 loss to current state No. 1 Sierra Canyon. Sure, Sierra Canyon didn’t have all its guys, but it’s Sierra Canyon and a freshman went off for 31.
In three solid wins last week, two of which were in Moore League action, Quali had 30 points (four three-pointers) in a 87-69 victory over crosstown Jordan, 31 (two three-pointers) in a 91-40 win versus crosstown Wilson, 24 points (two three-pointers) in limited action of a 106-65 victory at California of Whittier, and on Monday, and even though it technically didn’t count toward this week’s award, he finished it off with 32 points (two three-pointers) in a 102-39 rout of Lakewood.
So far this season, and on a team with two players averaging over 20 points and one at over 17 points per game, Giran is at a 25.2 per game clip with 4.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.0 steals. He’s also converted 58 three-pointers.
Addison Archer from Rancho Christian of Temecula ranks as one of the top freshman players in the state. Photo: Harold Abend / Cal-Hi Sports.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Player of the Week
Addison Archer
(Rancho Christian, Temecula) Fr.
To find the SoCal girls winner, we head to the far southeastern reaches of the Inland Empire portion of the CIF Southern Section and we land in Temecula at Rancho Christian High, and we say land because the Cal-Hi Sports Caravan made the 150-mile trip from Fullerton to see Archer in action just this past Saturday.
What we saw on Saturday at the Rancho Christian Private vs Public Showcase was a 5-foot-9 point guard with all the moves and athleticism to be the next big superstar in the state. What we saw also saw was her in action against an Etiwanda team that blanked her with multiple defenders intent on not letting her score. It was her worst game of the season after scoring 13 points in a 104-73 loss, and it was similar to what Archbishop Mitty did to her defensively when she only had 14 points. It’s what Addison did in her other games last week that made this a good week to honor her.
It isn’t even the first or the second time Eagles head coach Marlon Wells (who reportedly has just reached the 600-won career coaching threshold), has had a scoring machine that has drawn double and triple-team defenses.
“I’m going to teach her the Destiny Littleton mentality,” Wells remarked.
Littleton is the state’s all-time leading scorer with 4,300 career points while playing for Wells at La Jolla Bishop’s. Or what about Charde Houston? Teams threw out the kitchen sink at her when she played for Wells at San Diego High and according to the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book she comes in at No. 2 behind Littleton with 3,837 career points.
Archer has a ways to go the even get close to those two but if last week is an indication she has a chance.
In a 117-37 win over Menifee Heritage, Archer went for a school record 50 points with 10 assists. She followed that up with another double-double 43 points and 10 assists with seven rebounds in a 121-39 destruction of Moreno Valley Canyon Springs. Two weeks ago, in a 95-86 loss to league arch-rival Moreno Valley, Archer had 44 points with seven rebounds and four assists.
So far for the 18-5 Eagles, who are now at No. 20 in the most recent Cal-Hi Sports state rankings, Archer is averaging 27.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.
To those that say Archer is doing it against mediocre teams in lopsided wins, Littleton and Houston did it in the same fashion, and even legendary Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie, had 100-point outings against less than mediocre teams.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Player of the Week
Auburn Santos (Justin Garza, Fresno) Jr.
The center of “The Valley” as the locals like to affectionately call the CIF Central Section is our destination in search of the NorCal Girls Basketball Player of the Week and we were sent to Fresno and Justin Garza High by longtime Cal-Hi Sports friend and contributor, and CIF Central Section historian Bob Barnett, who outlined the exploits of Santos in his weekly Milestones column.
Santos led her team to two wins last week as the Guardians beat Madera 60-45 with her scoring 32 points, and then she scored 21 points in a 44-26 win over Madera South.
This is one of those body of work awards as well. Santos, a junior guard with a reported 4.0 GPA, has gone for 30 or more points seven times with a high of 34 points in a 68-54 victory over Tulare Western. She has only missed scoring in double figures twice for the 16-8 Guardians and is averaging 23.0 points per game.
Looking at the list of scoring leaders from the Central Section on MaxPreps, Auburn is on top with only Elizabeth Johnson of Orcutt Academy (22.3 ppg) that close behind. Auburn also within the past week also has gone past the 1,000-point mark for her career. That’s the first time ever for a Garza player, which is a school that began just four years ago.
Dominic Johnson of Bakersfield Frontier made local headlines last week with the 42-point game he had vs Stockdale. Photo: Frontier HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northen California
Boys Player of the Week
Dominic Johnson (Frontier, Bakersfield) Jr.
We head to the most southern portion of the CIF Central Section for our final stop this week, and our destination is a few miles of Highway 99 in northwestern Bakersfield where we head to Frontier High to honor this week’s NorCal Player of the Week, who now adds a statewide honor to local kudos.
Last week, in a 64-41 win over crosstown Stockdale, Johnson, a 5-foot-11 junior guard, broke the school record with 42 points with seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Dominic got his record-breaking night off to a good start with 17 points in the first quarter. He also finished 8-for-12 on three-pointers and went 15-of-21 shooting all shots.
It was a much different outing for Johnson in the only other game this season reported by the team on MaxPreps. He had 17 points in a 71-44 loss to Liberty of Bakersfield. Liberty is the team that the 13-10 Titans are playing again this week on Wednesday.
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
