P2P CCS Girls Basketball Honors

Klara Astrom, Pinewood
Position: Forward
Year: Junior

Astrom is only 5-9 and almost always was matched up against girls a little taller, but still got the job done in the paint. She was second on the team in scoring at 14.2 points per game and led the team in rebounding at a 7.1 clip. Astrom also led the team in steals with 2.2 per game and was second in assists at 2.0 per game, and the good news for Pinewood faithful is she’s back together with a solid core of returners.

Haley Jones, Archbishop Mitty
Position: Forward
Year: Junior

Most players list a position, and the recruiting analysts rate and rank players by position and year, but in the case of Jones, who is the ESPNW No. 1 ranked junior wing and to many the No. 1 junior at any position, it is and it isn’t appropriate, because Jones can play any position on the court and play it at least as well as anybody in the nation. The CCS Player of the Year won so many awards this past season she literally needs a wheelbarrow to tote them around.

Haley Jones

Nicole Blakes, Archbishop Mitty
Position: Center
Year: Senior

The Monarchs beat Pinewood once without their University of San Diego-bound senior post in the CCS Open title game but they missed her in the second outing in their NorCal Open loss. Despite going down in the final WCAL game with a knee injury there is no question Blakes is All-CCS First Team based on what she did prior to that. She played 23 of Mitty’s 30 games and averaged 14.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.8 steals per game. Two impressive performances were at the Nike TOC the Monarchs won where she had 22 points and 20 points against nationally ranked St. John’s-Washington D.C. and St. Mary’s-Stockton, respectively. She also had three solid outings when Mitty won the Platinum Division of the West Coast Jamboree.

Nicole Blakes

Hannah Jump, Pinewood
Position: Guard/Forward
Year: Junior

Not many players in Northern California have ever been offered by Stanford prior to the end of their junior season, or for that matter many players at all from NorCal or even California period, are asked to grace a Cardinal uniform, but hopping Hannah Jump has the entire package, including an astronomical 4.31 GPA that has landed her at The Farm. Everyone wants a shooter and the 5-11 Jump is just that, plus she’s steadily developed the rest of her game. She led the NorCal Open champs in scoring (16.7 ppg), was second in rebounding (5.6 rpg) and was right around two assists and steals a game. Jump drilled 102 three-pointers and shot 45-percent from outside the arc, 57-percent on 2-pointers and 84-percent from the free-throw line. Jump has 266 career treys and if she gets 100 or more next year she’ll be pretty high up on the career list in the Cal-Hi Sports Record Book.

Hannah Jump (right)

Karisma Ortiz, Archbishop Mitty
Position: Guard
Year: Senior

Along with Haley Jones the Penn State-bound Ortiz gave Mitty the top 1-2 punch not only in the CCS and Northern California, but all of California and the entire nation as well. More than once Ortiz came up big on either offense or defense, or both. Despite being a 6-0 wing that played a lot on the perimeter, Ortiz had 17 double-doubles last season and averaged 14.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Despite not seeing a lot of time as a freshman she leaves Mitty with career averages of 9.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.

Karisma Ortiz

Brittney Cedeno, South San Francisco
Position: Forward
Year: Senior

With all due respect to the roster of the South City girls it’s not a stretch to say the big reason the Warriors were 26-5 and 12-0 in the Peninsula Athletic League–North is because of this Cal Baptist University-bound 5-9 senior that took a lot of lumps from double- and triple-teaming by the opposition. Even so, the three-time PAL – North Player of the Year and San Mateo Daily Journal Co-Player of the Year this season still managed to post some very solid numbers and finished with per game averages of 16 points, six rebounds, six steals and five assists.

Brittney Cedeno

Briana Claros, Pinewood
Position: Guard
Year: Senior

The WBAL MVP and UC San Diego-bound Claros is the top selection on the second team. This past season the Panthers floor general averaged 11.2 points and 4.4 assists per game and always drew a tough defensive assignment. She also became much more aggressive attacking the basket, and in fact her floater driving down the lane pulled out a win against Cardinal Newman, and she used it successfully against Mitty as well.

Briana Claros

Talo Li-Uperesa, Sacred Heart Cathedral
Position: Forward/Center
Year: Junior

There were several girls for the Fighting Irish that came up big during the season but in the end the player that emerged as the top player on the team was this 5-10 junior that was the tallest starter and was almost always matched up against a taller player, but none more physical and aggressive attacking the glass as Li-Uperesa. She had a solid eight points and 11 rebounds in the NorCal D1 title-game victory over Miramonte, and although she had a tough outing in the CIF D1 state title game loss to Serra, Li-Uperesa still led the team in scoring and rebounding at 13.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

Kayla Tahaafe, Eastside College Prep
Position: Guard/Forward
Year: Senior

When the 5-7 senior star went down with a severe ankle sprain and Eastside up 15-8 in the CIF D1 NorCals over a Sacred Heart Cathedral they had beaten in two previous meetings, the dream of a third straight state championship was pretty much down the tubes as the Panthers went down against the Irish. Even so, in her three years the won two CIF state championships, three CIF Northern Regional titles, and this year after getting pushed up to Division I for NorCals she led the Panthers to the second round. Tahaafe played all 28 games for Eastside and around 28 minutes a game and led the team in scoring at 14.4 ppg, was second in rebounding at 6.7 rpg, and first with 4.1 assists and 2.3 steals as well.

Kayla Tahaafe

Ava Williams, Presentation
Position: Forward
Year: Senior

This Colgate-bound 5-10 senior wing and team leader that was called on to play just about every position on the floor by Presentation coach Wade Nakamura. She averaged a very solid double-double 16 points and 11 rebounds per game and helped lead the Panthers to a second place finish in the West Catholic Athletic League and the top seed in the Northern Regional Division I playoffs while earning All-WCAL First Team honors for the second straight year.

Ava Williams

Natalia Ackerman, Aptos
Position: Forward/Center
Year: Sophomore

The top player out of the SCCAL, Ackerman led the Mariners to an unbeaten run through league play, and then carried them to the CCS Division III championship game before falling to South San Francisco. For the year, she averaged 16 points, nine rebounds, three steals, and three blocks per game. That included a 22-point, 11-rebound, five-block performance in the section title game, which was duplicated a week later by scoring 22 points with nine rebounds in a NorCal regional quarterfinal loss to Clovis, after scoring 19 points in a first-round win over Marin Catholic.

Brittney Cedeno, South San Francisco
Position: Forward
Year: Senior

With all due respect to the roster of the South City girls it’s not a stretch to say the big reason the Warriors were 26-5 and 12-0 in the Peninsula Athletic League–North is because of this Cal Baptist University-bound 5-9 senior that took a lot of lumps from double- and triple-teaming by the opposition. Even so, the three-time PAL – North Player of the Year and San Mateo Daily Journal Co-Player of the Year this season still managed to post some very solid numbers and finished with per game averages of 16 points, six rebounds, six steals and five assists.

Brittney Cedeno

Hunter Hernandez, Archbishop Mitty
Position: Guard/Forward
Year: Freshman

The CCS Freshman of the Year gets the nod for one of the spots on the third team after becoming one of a handful of freshmen, including teammate and CCS Player of the Year Haley Jones, to start for legendary Mitty coach Sue Phillips. And she did it on a team that despite losing to Pinewood was No. 1 in the nation in the computer rankings and No. 3 in the human rankings. She was asked to take on tough defensive challenges by Phillips and averaged 6.5 points and 3.3 rebounds a game and played in all 30 games for the 29-1 Monarchs.

Hunter Hernandez (center)

Carly Leong, Palo Alto
Position: Guard
Year: Senior

With competitive equity pushing the top teams and players up and thus dominating many of the All area teams including the P2P All-CCS three teams, Leong, the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League – De Anza MVP and two-time All-League First Team selection was in the mix with several players including Cedeno, Paige Uyehara of St. Francis, Ila Lane of Woodside Priory, and Krissy Miyahara of Mitty. In the end one of the six spots on the third team went to the Vikings senior that went over the 1,000 career point mark this past season while averaging 19.7 points with 74 three-pointers, and 6.9 rebounds per game. Leong finished her four-year varsity career at Paly with 1,190 points and 220 three-pointers.

Carly Leong

Tatiana Reese, Woodside Priory
Position: Guard
Year: Senior

The school only had a JV program before Reese came to Woodside Priory four years ago but my how that has changed. This season, Reese and her teammates fell a little short of a state championship, but she still graduates with two straight CCS Division V titles and a CIF Northern Regional title to show for her efforts, and while some All-area teams did not give Reese her proper due, it’s a second team honor for her in our judgment. “We go nowhere without her,” Priory Coach Buck Matthews said.

Tatiana Reese

Gianna Silvestri, Sacred Heart Cathedral
Position: Forward
Year: Senior

The second Fightin' Irish player to get an All-CCS honor off the CIF Northern Regional Division I champions played her heart out in both the Northern Regional Division I title game where she was tied for game-high with teammate Yaniah Fleming with 12 points, and the CIF D1 title-game loss to Serra where she led the team with 14 points including two three-pointers, which was double what Serra had as a team. Silvestri averaged 12.4 points and 4.4 rebounds and made 75 three-pointers while shooting 46 percent from outside the arc.

Gianna Silvestri

Courtni Thompson, Pinewood
Position: Guard
Year: Freshman

After what the 5-5 flashy guard did, and particularly in big games, for a Panthers team that was the CIF Northern Regional Open Division champions, made it close between her and Hernandez for top freshman honors. Although she started all 30 games and had a slow start, and her time was curtailed in some blowouts. It was in the last three games of the season when it counted where Thompson shined on offense and defense. She had 11 points and four rebounds in the NorCal Open upset of St. Mary’s, 10 points, six rebounds and three assists in the NorCal Open title-game victory over Mitty, and 14 points, five rebounds and two steals while also being asked to help guard Charisma Osborne in the CIF Open state championship loss to Windward. On the season her averages were 5.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

Nyah Willis, Valley Christian
Position: Forward
Year: Junior

She was second on the team in scoring and rebounding, and the only stat Willis led the team in was assists (3.2 per game), but when the Warriors top player missed a few games she and her gutsy game and motor were sorely missed. Had Willis not been dinged up this season Valley Christian may have done a lot better and she likely would have improved on her 12.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Willis returns next season and if she’s healthy look for a possible breakout for her.

Nyah Willis