The 2018 Prep2Prep CIF North Coast Section Sophomore of the Year moves up a notch to win the P2P NCS Junior of the Year award for this past season and gives St. Joseph Notre Dame a daily double as Mastora joins Freshman of the Year Talana Lepolo in garnering a P2P NCS honor.

Despite not being a real vocal leader on the court, the bottom line is when Malia talks her Pilots teammates listen. The result was with her style of leadership as a captain the young Pilots posted a 22-8 record with a grueling schedule. They finished as a runner-up to Salesian in the NCS Division III title game, and the prestigious honor of being one of only six teams in Northern California to be chosen for the CIF Open Division state playoffs.

“Malia’s leadership skills are different from a typical captain,” remarked St. Joseph Notre Dame Coach Shawn Hipol. “Some are vocal and loud, and can be a bit mean to some degree. That is not Malia. She is the complete opposite. Malia is the quiet type so when she does speak everyone stops and listens.”

“Her ability to get the most out of her teammates is done by how she is able to switch her tone from one teammate to another and get the message across that fits that particular player,” continued Hipol. “Relationships are very important to Malia and even though she is not loud on the court we all know she is our fearless leader.”

Along the way, on a team with seven girls averaging over 5.5 points per game, the quiet but fearless leader, who also was the tallest starter at 5-10, led the team at a 14.8 clip and also led the Pilots in rebounds and blocks at 4.6 and 1.8, respectively, and she had 2.6 steals a game. Her consistent mid-range shot is her bread and butter but Mastora also made 40 three-pointers.

When you look at her stats the thing that sticks out is her consistency. Her high water mark was 30 points against a solid Whitney-Rocklin early in the season. She had 18 points and a season-high 12 rebounds in a heartbreaking loss to a very good Bishop’s-La Jolla. One of her best games was in the NCS D3 semis on the road at Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa when she had 15 points, eight rebounds and three assists in a 54-47 victory. In several blowout wins her time was limited but Mastora still managed to be in double-figure scoring 25 out of 30 games.

“I am shocked but extremely grateful for this,” Mastora responded when told of her award. “It’s a great honor to be named NCS junior of the year and I’m extremely grateful for being recognized amongst other very talented juniors.”

“Although this may be an individual honor, none of this could be possible without my teammates and coaches, and our overall team success,” continued Mastora.

Since she was the P2P sophomore winner, Mastora has not only developed as a leader and teammate, but her game beyond just the stats has improved as well.

“Her biggest areas of improvement are her ability to attack the basket off the dribble, defend on and off the ball at a high level, and passing,” Hipol said. “Malia has always been known to be a deadly perimeter threat but now you must play her honest.”

Malia sees it in a similar fashion and also acknowledges taking on leadership now that she is a junior on a team that only had one senior starter.

“As an upperclassmen I have definitely taken on a bigger leadership role on and off the court,” Mastora said. “I’m always ready to help lead my team and make sure they are mentally and physically prepared for each game.”

“I feel like this year I’ve improved a lot on my defense and rebounding,” continued Mastora. “This year I took a lot of pride in defending the best player on the opposing team. Also, with us being a smaller team I needed to rebound more.

Mastora not only excels on the court but she’s just as good and maybe better in the classroom where she carries a 4.29 GPA, and that’s akin to averaging 35 points a game.

Colleges are taking note of game coupled with her grades and according to Mastora Air Force, Brown, University of Pacific, UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Villanova “have shown interest.”

For her efforts throughout the season, we are pleased to recognize Malia Mastora as the Prep2Prep North Coast Section Junior of the Year.

Others considered include Heritage's Abigail Musa and Cardial Newman's Anya Choice.

NOTE: We would like to thank our media partners, coaches, parents, players and fans for contributing photos for our all-section features. We salute all of the players that have made this a wonderful season of NCS basketball.