ESPNHS California

The first of the various ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports all-state teams is announced and it’s a look at the best from the Class of 2013, 2014 and 2015. Aaron Holiday (Campbell Hall) is in the front.

ALL-STATE JUNIORS

First Team
F Jabari Bird (Salesian, Richmond) 6-6
F Aaron Gordon (Archbishop Mitty, San Jose) 6-8
G Isaac Hamilton (St. John Bosco, Bellflower) 6-5
G Ron Lee Jr. (Oak Park, Agoura Hills) 6-2
F Roschon Prince (Long Beach Poly) 6-6

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We choose honorees for seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen and for each CIF division. Toughest picks were for Division IV and freshmen.

Congratulations to these boys players for being selected as an ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports State Player of the Year. Stay tuned for the release next week of the 34th annual ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports All-State Teams and for our announcement of Ms. Basketball 2012 on Wednesday. Here is a complete list of our boys basketball individual honorees for the 2011-12 season:

Seniors – Katin Reinhardt (Mater Dei, Santa Ana)

On those rare occasions when an underclassman is named Mr. Basketball, an entry for state senior player of the year is added to the Cal-Hi Sports state record book. That player for this season is Reinhardt, the unofficial runner-up to Aaron Gordon of Mitty for Mr. Basketball honors after leading Mater Dei to its second consecutive Division I state title with only two losses to out-of-state foes.

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It’s time to get rolling toward the selection of the 33rd annual all-state teams. The first step is our list of nominees, which includes more than 350 players. Previous all-state picks have included Jason Kidd, Reggie Miller, Paul Pierce, Kevin Johnson, Jeremy Lin and many more.

Note: This list is compiled so that coaches, parents and readers can submit additions, corrections and make comments (anonymously of course) about which players should be selected when all information is received. Nominations are always welcome. This list will be updated and posted one more time prior to the teams being finalized on April 20 and announced over the following weekend.

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Behind 30 points from Katin Reinhardt, Mater Dei beats Sheldon in D1 final and gets state record ninth championship for coach Gary McKnight. Alemany also completes quest with D3 victory while Village Christian upends defending champ for first D5 crown.

The CIF Division I, Division III and Division V state title games in boys basketball were played at Power Balance Arena in Sacramento. The Division II and Division IV titles were decided on Friday (click here for writeups).

Division I:
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 66, Sheldon (Sacramento) 48

Two hours after Mater Dei girls’ coach Kevin Kiernan became the winningest in CIF history, boys’ coach Gary McKnight topped even that by earning his ninth and the program’s second in a row.

McKnight, who began coaching the team in 1983, broke the state record of eight set in 1997 by retired Crenshaw of Los Angeles coach Willie West.

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As is our custom prior to CIF state finals in football and basketball, we take a crack at choosing which teams we think will win.

Note: All of the following writeups and selections are done with the highest level of respect to both teams and all coaches. We never use point spreads and, sure, some of the scores might be a bit more lopsided than we might think. But you also never know what might happen. After all, these are teenagers.

We had one of our worst years ever in last year’s CIF finals (boys and girls combined) with just six correct and four wrong. We were 7-for-10 in 2010 and were 9-for-10 in 2009.

The following writeups were completed by Ronnie Flores, Harold Abend, Mark Tennis, Paul Muyskens.

Boys Division I
(Saturday, March 24, 8 p.m.)

Cal-Hi Sports’ predicted score:
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 77, Sheldon (Sacramento) 66

The marquee game of the 2012 CIF boys state championships could live up to its billing as both teams look for historic victories.

Mater Dei, the top-ranked team in the state and the No. 8 team in the country in the POWERADE FAB 50, is gunning for its second consecutive CIF state title. Sheldon is looking to become the first Sacramento-area Division I state champion ever.

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Important announcement from Cal-Hi Sports | Archived Cal-Hi Sports content

Victory by the Wildcats gives them the edge if it comes down to them and Mater Dei at the end of the season for the girls' hoops State Team of the Year honor since the two teams will be in different divisions in the postseason. Go inside here as well for highlights of other games played Friday at the Nike Extravaganza, including Mater Dei boys.

Related: Nike Extravaganza Saturday preview

The marquee game of Friday's session at the Nike Extravaganza pitted the top two teams in the Cal-Hi Sports girls state rankings was everything it was cracked up to be.

In the end, it was the size of No. 1 Windward of Los Angeles that proved the undoing of host No. 2 Mater Dei of Santa Ana in a 65-62 Wildcats' victory.

“Windward is a great team,” said Mater Dei coach Kevin Kiernan. “They executed and moved the ball real well and beat us pretty good on the boards.”

Windward (20-2) used its size advantage to finish with a 45-22 rebounding advantage.

Macchi Smith, the hero of Windward’s 56-55 victory last Saturday over No. 4 Long Beach Poly, came through again. The sophomore guard had a team-high 16 points, including a rebound and put back off the front end of a one-and-one free-throw attempt by Imani Stafford with 26 seconds left that sealed the deal.

The 6-foot-7 Texas-bound Stafford only had nine points, but she pulled down 16 rebounds and blocked three shots, including a 3-point attempt by Mater Dei’s Khalia Lark with 2.5 seconds left.

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