Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles won the Southern Section academic award for its boys' basketball team for 2024-2025. With fewer than 800 students, Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles wants everyone to know that its boys' basketball team for the 2024-25 season was No. 1 among more than 580 schools in the Southern Section in receiving the academic award for highest team grade-point average and also was named CIF statewide academic team champion.
(Ethan Miller / Getty Images) In a high school basketball season that has seen a number of promising freshman guards step forward to make major contributions in the opening month of the season, Major Williams of Edison might have turned in the best performance yet. He tied a school record with 11 threes and finished with 39 points in Edison's 96-82 victory over Long Beach Jordan on Tuesday night.
Palisades, hoping to be a City Section basketball title contender, unveiled two 6-foot-5 twins from Detroit, EJ and OJ Popoola, on Monday night, but there was no stopping Windward shooting threes in its home gym. The Wildcats made 14 threes and received a terrific performance from 6-6 junior Davey Harris in an 80-60 victory. Harris, who said he was "80%" several weeks ago in Windward's season opener after recovering from a knee injury that sidelined him for two seasons, now says he's "85 to 90%." If that's true, wait until he's 100% because he finished with 31 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
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There's no settling for average or ordinary this basketball season for Redondo Union coach Reggie Morris Jr. He has high expectations, and when several of his starters didn't come out performing on Tuesday, he quickly pulled them. "We try to develop good habits," Morris said. The Sea Hawks (4-0), ranked No. 3 in the Southland by The Times, responded with a blitz that indicated his players got the message.
Those watching the girls basketball debut of 6-foot-3 freshman Lucia Khamenia of Harvard-Westlake on Tuesday night have seen the way she plays before. For four years on the boys team, brother Nikolas Khamenia became an All-American because of his versatility. He's now a freshman at Duke. Lucia displayed the same qualities in a 67-28 victory over Granada Hills. She had 11 points, eight rebounds and two assists. She made a three from the baseline, just like her big brother used to do.
When sophomore guard Phoenix Smith came off the bench on Monday night in Crespi's season opener against Cleveland, two things were clear: His big hair and his 5-foot-7 frame, the smallest on the court. He played junior varsity last season, and let's just say Celts coach Derek Fisher is going to have fun working with him. Smith was three for three on three-pointers and finished with 16 points in Crespi's 81-44 win over Cleveland.
Whether he knows it or not, 6-foot-5 Zane Daoud of San Marino High is going to be a role model for kids born deaf. He was one of them, 60% deaf since birth. He rebelled against wearing hearing aids. He'd take them off constantly while growing up. By high school, he says he figured out how much they could help him and stopped worrying what people thought. He should be a top basketball player for Rio Hondo League favorite San Marino this season.
1. SIERRA CANYON: Trailblazers can go 10 deep and have elite trio of Maximo Adams, Brandon McCoy and Brannon Martinsen. 2. SANTA MARGARITA: Four returning starters, led by Georgia Tech commit Kaiden Baley. 3. HARVARD-WESTLAKE: The Wolverines always find a way to improve in the offseasn when top players graduate, and this season will be no different as Pierce Thompson becomes the latest new star.
There are few individuals in sports history who achieved what he accomplished in his hometown as a basketball standout. He led Poly to the City championship over Manual Arts in 1961, helped UCLA win two NCAA titles under coach John Wooden, including a record-setting 42-point performance in the 1965 final, and won an NBA title as the Lakers' leading scorer in 1971-72 on a team that had a 33-game winning streak and featured fellow future Hall of Famers Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain.
Andrew Wiggins was among the first superstar prospects of the social media era. Born in Thornhill, Ontario just north of Toronto, Wiggins was known internationally by the time he was 13. It wasn't always easy for the shy, small-town kid to embrace the spotlight. After just one full season at Vaughan, Wiggins needed better competition than Canada could provide and moved on to Huntington Prep in Huntington, West Virginia a relatively new prep school set in a small, blue-collar, sports-oriented college town near Kansas.
When any basketball coach is raving about an opposing player, that sets off an alarm bell for sportswriters to pay attention and investigate. It turns out all the good things coaches are beginning to say about 6-foot-4 junior guard Donovan Webb of Golden Valley High are true. Canyon Country Canyon coach Ali Monfared said Webb might be the best player in the Foothill League, which held its media day at Canyon on Saturday.
Rod Wave Elite is a popular high school basketball squad that bounces around the country playing exhibition games to crowds of rabid teens and internet celebrities. They're run by a former college hooper turned influencer, Cam Wilder, and are named after the North Star of Southern pain rap, though the Floridian doesn't seem to have anything to do with the team.
Stephen Singleton, who guided Eastvale Roosevelt to state and Southern Section Open Division championships last season, announced his retirement from coaching on Thursday after 10 years at Roosevelt and 25 years in the business. He will continue as a teacher. Singleton intends to spend more time coaching his young son. He also won a state Division I title in 2017 with Roosevelt and won a state Division II title coaching briefly at Dominguez in Compton in 2001.
