Sierra Canyon’s ‘Juju farewell tour’ faces its toughest test against Country Day

Two months in the past, when her Chatsworth Sierra Canyon Excessive’s workplace was filled with containers of jerseys and a run at back-to-back state championships was hypothetical, Eleventh-year women’ basketball coach Alicia Komaki leaned in opposition to her desk and mused that — gasp — the Trailblazers would possibly truly lose just a few video games this season.

She knew going into the season that it might be the hardest schedule any of her groups had performed. And Sierra Canyon performed 13 straight video games to begin the season in opposition to out-of-state groups, three of which have been ranked in ESPN’s nationwide prime 25. They didn’t play a house sport till the tip of December. Komaki half-joked she slept in her personal mattress solely thrice final month.

So she took it a step additional.

“I believe it’s the hardest schedule anyone’s ever put collectively,” Komaki stated.

There was a particular alternative this season, Komaki stated, to place collectively that schedule in nationwide anticipation of transcendent USC commit Juju Watkins’ senior season, which the coach has dubbed the “Juju farewell tour.”

In some way, the tour bus hasn’t hit a single pothole. The Trailblazers have gone 14-0 however will face their hardest check but Saturday, taking over a 16-1 La Jolla Nation Day crew in The Chosen-1s Invitational at USC’s Galen Middle — Watkins’ stomping floor subsequent season.

May Saturday deliver that first loss Komaki anticipated?

“One-thousand p.c,” Komaki stated. “They’re one of many prime 5 groups within the nation. We’re not untouchable. And that’s sort of the enjoyable a part of this 12 months is, we’re not simply doing this [schedule] figuring out we’re routinely getting wins all over the place we go.”

The Sierra Canyon-La Jolla women sport is at 6:30 p.m., a part of a schedule of 4 video games within the LeBron James- and Nike-sponsored event. The Mater Dei women and boys play the Akron (Ohio) St. Vincent-St. Mary, women and boys at 3 and 4:30 p.m., respectively, whereas the Sierra Canyon boys tackle Marietta (Ga.) Wheeler at 8 p.m.

Saturday might deliver probably the greatest video games in latest women’ basketball showdowns. The final three Nation Day-Sierra Canyon video games, courting to 2019-20, have been determined by a complete of 4 factors. This season options two of one of the best groups in every program’s historical past, cores intact and improved from the Trailblazers’ one-point win over the Torreys within the CIF Open Division state event final 12 months.

Again for Nation Day are 4 gamers averaging double figures: the athletic Taj Roberts, shooter and UC San Diego commit Sumayah Sugapong, artful guard and NIL star Jada Williams, and 6-foot-4 inside presence Breya Cunningham. Williams and Cunningham are each dedicated to Arizona, and share a particular level guard-big connection — La Jolla coach Terri Bamford known as Cunningham, who averages 19.4 factors and a pair of.8 blocks a sport, “probably the greatest publish gamers within the nation.”

As at all times, La Jolla’s protection must throw the kitchen sink at Watkins — but it surely’s not that simple. Final 12 months, Bamford stated, they tried to double crew Watkins through the use of Cunningham to assist off Sierra Canyon senior ahead Crystal Wang. It didn’t work. Wang, a gifted scorer who simply led the Trailblazers with 21 factors in opposition to Studio Metropolis Harvard-Westlake on Tuesday, had “the sport of her life,” Bamford remembered.

Then there’s guard Izela Arenas, junior daughter of former NBA All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas, who modifications gears and instructions on her drives to the rim like a Chevrolet from the “Quick & Livid” motion pictures. Or Mackenly Randolph, junior daughter of former All-Star ahead Zach Randolph, who’s honed an inside-out sport and is relentless on the boards.

Plus, the Trailblazers have an intriguing piece to throw at Cunningham in freshman heart Emilia Krstevski, who held her personal in an early-season matchup in opposition to South Grand Prairie (Texas) and star junior heart Adhel Tac.

“Placing that sort of expertise on show … folks will probably be enthusiastic about it,” Bamford stated. “It’s enjoyable basketball, it’s high-scoring basketball. I believe as position fashions for each excessive faculties, youthful gamers rising up proper now watching them play, [it] conjures up younger youngsters to be, ‘Hey, I need to be like that.’”

Others to observe

—Santa Ana Mater Dei 6-foot guard Addison Deal, a summer time switch from Santa Monica Pacifica Christian, is among the prime guards within the nation. She’s a triple-double risk flanked by senior guard and Concordia commit Hannah Vela and senior guard and Tennessee Chattanooga commit Caia Elisaldez on a deep 13-2 Monarch women’ crew that’s only a tier beneath Sierra Canyon and Etiwanda within the Southern Part women’ basketball hierarchy.

—The Sierra Canyon boys aren’t the one crew at The Chosen-1’s Invitational with royal bloodlines. The 13-2 Mater Dei boys embrace freshman Cole Leinart, son of USC Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart; freshman Malloy Smith, son of NBA champion Kenny Smith; and freshman Che Brogan, son of Mater Dei nice Tom Lewis. Brogan, specifically, is a 6-foot-6 standout making an instantaneous influence on a younger Monarch crew.

—USC hoops followers in attendance can have a lot to get enthusiastic about. They will see future Trojans in Watkins and 2023 USC males’s commits Isaiah Collier and Arriten Web page, gifted gamers for an 8-4 Wheeler crew that’ll give the Trailblazer boys one in all their hardest opponents of the season.