California state high school basketball finals preview: Players to watch
The California Interscholastic Federation state basketball championships are scheduled for this weekend at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Boys and girls titles will be contested in Divisions I, III and V on Friday and the Open Division, plus Divisions II and IV, on Saturday.
Five teams from the Bay Area News Group’s coverage area have advanced: The Archbishop Mitty and Oakland Tech girls and Granada, Oakland and Half Moon Bay boys.
Here are some of the top players to watch:
Girls
Morgan Cheli, Archbishop Mitty: The junior guard has shown no signs of rust after missing most of the regular season with a foot injury, scoring 15 points in the NorCal Open final a little more than a week after finishing with 18 in the CCS Open final against Pinewood.
Maya Hernandez, Archbishop Mitty: The middle sibling of the three talented Hernandez sisters, the 6-1 post and Loyola-Marymount commit scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds in a NorCal Open semifinal victory over Clovis West.
Aliyahna Morris, Etiwanda: The 5-5 sophomore point guard is a handful for defenses. She had 17 points and made the tiebreaking free throw with 2.4 seconds left to stun Sierra Canyon 55-54 on Tuesday in the SoCal Open final.
Erin Sellers, Oakland Tech: One half of Tech’s dynamic senior guard tandem, Sellers made six 3-pointers in the second half of the Bulldogs’ 82-71 NorCal Division I victory at top-seeded St. Mary’s-Stockton.
Kennedy Smith, Etiwanda: The junior outscored JuJu Watkins, the best player in high school basketball, 21 to 16 in Etiwanda’s stunning 55-54 upset over then-unbeaten Sierra Canyon in the SoCal Open Division final.
Mari Somvichian, Oakland Tech: The senior floor general scored 14 points against St. Mary’s-Stockton on Tuesday night and directed a team that won each of its four NorCal games by double-digit margins.
McKinley Willardson, Santiago-Corona: The 6-1 senior forward carried the Sharks to the SoCal Division I championship, scoring 24 points in a 52-39 victory over Del Norte.
McKenna Woliczko, Archbishop Mitty: The freshman has performed well beyond her years all season, and that continued in the NorCal Open Division final when she had 29 points and 21 rebounds in an 86-49 rout of Salesian.
Boys
Brady Dunlap, Harvard-Westlake: The 6-7 small forward has multiple college offers, including from Notre Dame, San Diego State and Arkansas. He scored 18 points in the SoCal Open final against previously undefeated and defending Open champion Centennial-Corona.
Caleb Foster, Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks: Motivated by being snubbed for the McDonald’s All-America game, the Duke-bound star scored 28 points as Notre Dame routed Bronny James-led Sierra Canyon 80-61 in the SoCal D-I final. James was chosen for the prestigious game.
Tyler Harris, Granada: The 6-foot-7 Salesian transfer helped end his former team’s season in the NorCal Division I final, finishing with 18 points as Granada prevailed 60-47.
Jaeden Hutchins, Half Moon Bay: If the 6-8 junior plays Saturday the way he did in the NorCal D-IV final, HMB might return from Sacramento with a state title. Hutchins had 23 points in a 71-59 win at Chico.
Andrew McKeever, Granada: The St. Mary’s-bound 7-footer has been dominant while leading Granada to its first regional championship. In the NorCal Division I semifinals, he had 31 points and 16 rebounds as the Livermore school defeated Archbishop Riordan 69-57.
Mercy Miller, Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks: The Houston commit and son of rapper Master P plays well in big games, scoring 17 points in a regular-season win against NorCal Open No. 2 seed Dougherty Valley and 18 points in a rout of Sierra Canyon in the SoCal Division I final.
Money Williams, Oakland: The Montana commit was the best player on the floor during the NorCal Division III championship game at Laney College, pacing all scorers with 25 points while leading Oakland to a 77-61 victory over Oakland Tech and its first trip to a state final.
Dusty Stromer, Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks: Gonzaga-bound shooting guard is capable of lighting up the scoreboard, as he showed in late January when he had 22 points in a win over Sierra Canyon at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.
Tounde Yessoufou, St. Joseph-Santa Maria: One of the top players nationally in the sophomore class, the 6-6, 200-pound power forward scored 29 points in a semifinal win at Dougherty Valley and 27 in a victory over Modesto Christian for the NorCal Open title.