News Bits
City College San Francisco remains on top.
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6-foot-5 senior Anthony (Dublin High/USF) Brown is attending Oklahoma State this season (his sixth school in six years including one year at a community college and another year at the NAIA level) and averaging a team best 16.2 points in 25 minutes an outing while shooting 46% and 43% from the floor and 89% at the foul line. He is also grabbing 3.8 rebounds a contest.
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6-foot sophomore Leo (De La Salle High) Ricketts transferred out of Sacramento State to Citrus College in southern California and certainly is enjoying both his program choice and his production thus far. He is averaging a team high 20.6 points on 51%, 59% and 88% alongside 3.6 assists plus 2.9 rebounds a night. Keep in mind that 12-1 Citrus is averaging 107.3 points per game this season but 59% on 50-85 three-point attempts is remarkable. 37-42 at the charity stripe is someone a coach wants in during the last few minutes of games, too.
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Cal State East Bay stands 10-0 and in first place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association at this point in the season and, while fifth in scoring (in a 12-team conference) at 74.1 points a night, the Pioneers of Coach Bryan Rooney are allowing just a first-place 62.4 points per game, thus enjoying an 11.7 point differential.
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- "SCIAC Defensive Athlete of the Week
- Name: Derek Sangster
- School: Redlands
- Year: Junior
- Position: Forward
- Hometown/High School: Sunnyvale, CA / Archbishop Mitty (Princeton / UC Davis)
Sangster nabbed six steals as the University of Redlands solidified its No. 11 national ranking with a pair of ranked wins over No. 13 Roanoke College and host No. 16 Hampden-Sydney College. The junior added a block and eight rebounds while averaging 9.0 points and 1.0 assist per game."
He's found a home, great academically, at the appropriate level of competition.
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Big Sky Conference Stat Leaders
"Montana’s Money (Oakland High) Williams is the Big Sky’s leading scorer through 13 appearances, averaging 18.2 points per contest. Portland State’s Terri (Clovis North High/College of the Sequoias) Miller Jr. is second with 17.8 ppg, followed by Northern Colorado’s Quinn (Bellarmine College Prep/Wesy Valley College) Denker in third with a 17.3 ppg average.
Denker is also the Big Sky’s leader in assist average...dishing out 6.1 per contest."
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Verbal Commits: "2029 Millikan (CA) G Quali Giran has received an offer from California."
He's a 6-foot-1 freshman out of Long Beach. UCLA, TCU, Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, Sacramento State and San Jose State University have also offered this diaper dandy. SJSU was first in line but UCLA now is certainly the biggest dawg.
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Lakeshow AAU: "@a1den_li MIT COMMITTED! PROUD Alum ON & OFF the court."
The 6-foot-1 Li attends Dublin High and sports a 4.43 GPA and earned a 1530 score on his SAT. He also plays football. A very nice holiday present for the young man.
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Sahib Randhawa: "Excited to announce that I have received an offer from Pacific University! Thank you to Coach Hellstrom and Coach Lunt for believing in me."
Pacific U is located in Oregon. Randhawa stands 6-foot-4.
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Nathan Hibbert: "Blessed to receive an offer from Pacific University! Thank you CoachBHellstrom and JustinLunt for believing in me."
The 6-foot-6 225 Hibbert attends Vanden High. He also has an offer from George Fox University (Oregon) and Fisher College Boston). Again, Pacific is in Oregon.
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Recruits Zone (Blake Smith): "2026 four-star prospect Franck Belibi Jr. has received an invitation to the NBA’s Basketball without Borders Camp, he tells madehoops. Announced his commitment to Pacific over the summer."
Belibi Jr. sounds like a nice catch for the Stockton program. He's a 6-foot-4 combo guard.
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Recruits Zone (Blake Smith): "INFO: 2027 prospect Kareem Hopkins has heard from the following schools recently, he tells madehoops:
- Boston College
- Stanford
- Columbia
- Holy Cross
6’7 wing."
Hopkins is at South Kent School in The Nutmeg State.
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"Cal-Hi Sports Northern California Boys Player of the Week Malichai Brown (Antelope High) Sr.
For our final stop this week, we head northeast of Sacramento up 1-80, but before reaching Roseville, we then turn left off the Antelope Road exit and head over to Antelope High. The basketball team this season is off to a great start and with Brown having some big outings improved to 12-2 last weekend with a romp through the field at the Carmel Invitational.
Brown, a 6-foot senior guard, had his average game of 19 points and five assists in the tourney opener, which was a 79-31 victory vs San Lorenzo Valley of Felton. In the semifinals, he and the Titans beat San Luis Obispo, 82-63, and in that game Brown hit from downtown early and continued to stay hot with a career high 36 points. That also is a new school record. He also had six assists and four steals. The tourney final was a 72-43 win vs Salinas. Brown had 20 points and three assists and was named tourney MVP.
With a double-double on his log of 27 points and 10 rebounds in a win vs Christian Brothers of Sacramento, Malichai is averaging 19.1 points with 2.1 assists and 3.1 steals per game."
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"Watsonville’s Sandor Rodriguez, 27, grateful for chance to finish what he started"
Love these followup features.
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- "SCIAC Offensive Athlete of the Week (Dec. 15)
- Name: Jonathan Duley
- School: Whittier College
- Year: Junior
- Position/Number: Guard / #13
- High School: Del Oro High/Menlo Colege
Duley and Whittier College engineered a massive comeback from a 17-point deficit to win, 75-73, over the University of California, Santa Cruz. The junior scored 20 of 25 points and hit the game-winning jumper in the second half alone while shooting 56 percent from the field (3-for-5 from long range) along with four rebounds, three steals, two assists and a pair of blocks."
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"The 7-Footer Who Ditched the NBA to Go to College"
Dylan was prescient - the times they are a-definitely changin'
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Scores
St. Mary's remained undefeated at home with an 8-0 record alongside 11-2 on the season in defeating a now 9-3 Northern Iowa squad 63-58 as Paulius Murauskas scored 20 points and Mikey (Prolific Prep) Lewis 15. But neither shot well at 6-18 and 5-19 respectively and the Gaels as a team shot a paltry 32%, 20% on three-point attempts. But finishing 25-27 at the foul line carried Coach Randy Bennett's crew. NI concluded the game at a much better 44% overall shooting but earned a confounding total of just four foul shots. The Iowans were also out-rebounded 42-25. Gael game report.
Then down in Los Angeles, St. Mary's played fellow West Coast Conference member Loyola Marymount to a 33-33 tie at the half. This with the leading scorer (15.3 ppg) for the Lions, Myron (Vacaville High/San Jose State University) Amey Jr., going scoreless. The pairing concluded with the Gaels nabbing a 78-73 victory four of the Moraga-ites scored in double figures: Dillan Shaw with 18 points, Joshua Dent 14 (plus a team best five assists), Paulius Murauskas 12 (as well as a squad high nine boards) while Andrew (Granada High) McKeever contributed 12 points off the bench. Amey Jr. had 11 points plus seven rebounds at the end of the game.
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Led by five starters scoring in double figures, Cal State Northridge outscored visiting Sacramento State 100-88. Prophet Johnson paced the Hornets with both 28 points and 11 rebounds. Coach Henry Bibby's team is now 0-7 on the road, 4-8 overall. For Northridge, Mahmoud (Santa Teresa High/West Valley College) Fofana tallied 17 points (7-7 overall shooting) and added eight boards, three assists and three steals.
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Paced by freshman guard Ebuka Okorie's 30 points, host Stanford got by Cal State Northridge 88-80 after trailing by five at the half. Okorie shot 9-18, 4-9, 8-10. Chisom Okpara went 11-14 at the foul line to finish with 20 points and Benny Gealer finished with 13 points aided by shooting 4-6 on threes and led the Cardinal with five assists.
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9-4 Santa Clara went up to Corvallis and jumped out to a 53-20 lead versus Oregon State after 20 minutes. The matchup finished at 102-64 as Elijah (West Valley College) Mahi led the victors with 23 points on 8-13, 5-7, 2-3 shooting The Broncos shot 64% overall as a team and 15-27 on three-point attempts.
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Host UC Davis busted out to a 34-6 lead about 2/3 of the way through the first half over nearby Pacific Union College. The final score: 108-52. Four Aggies finished in double figures scoring, the most impressive being freshman guard Jalen Stokes compiling 17 points in 14 minutes on 6-8, 3-4, 2-2 shooting.
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San Francisco trekked up to the Great Northwest to challenge fellow West Coast Conference member Seattle and owned a 32-30 lead after 20 minutes. Heading towards the end, the Dons generally held a four-point lead, then it went up to seven with 30 seconds remaining. It became a 67-59 win for the visitors. Senior guard Ryan (Dougherty Valley High) Beasley provided 13 points, six rebounds and three assists for San Francisco. For the hosts, redshirt sophomore Will (Archie Williams High) Heimbrodt enjoyed a line of 14 points, 10 boards and three blocked shots.
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Visiting Northern Colorado bested Colorado 86-81 AsQuinn (Bellarmine College Prep/West Valley College) Denker exploded for 35 points (12-18, 3-6, 6-6 shooting plus eight board and eight assists in carrying 10-3 UNC to victory. Bear Coach Steve Smiley is one of the most underrated mentors in the nation and should be heading a major program sooner rather than later. Denker was open to staying home in San Jose at one point but Idaho won out for his services.
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