Even four weeks after Siera Thompson sparked Serra High’s girls’ basketball team to its first California State Division IV championship with a 62-60 win over Richmond Salesian, Thompson continued to excel in last Saturday’s 15th Annual Collision All-Star Girls’ Basketball Classic by leading the CIF-Southern Section All-Stars with 15 points for their 78-53 victory over the CIF-Los Angeles City stars at Redondo High.
Her performance gave Thompson the game’s Most Valuable Player.
Even four weeks after Siera Thompson sparked Serra High’s girls’ basketball team to its first California State Division IV championship with a 62-60 win over Richmond Salesian, Thompson continued to excel in last Saturday’s 15th Annual Collision All-Star Girls’ Basketball Classic by leading the CIF-Southern Section All-Stars with 15 points for their 78-53 victory over the CIF-Los Angeles City stars at Redondo High.
Her performance gave Thompson the game’s Most Valuable Player.
“It was a blessing,” the University of Michigan-bound senior guard said. “I thank the coaching and my teammates.’
Also scoring in double figures for the Southern Section was Santa Monica St. Monica’s Briana Harris and Keyla Morgan from Long Beach Poly with 12 points apiece.
Thompson’s teammate, Deandrea Toler, added seven points. Toler will be playing at University of Oregon in the fall.
Also playing for the CIF-SS was Torrance’s Ihana Alano who had two points.
For the L.A. City All-Stars, Cora Chan of Woodland Hills El Camino Real and Ayifat Afolahi from Sepulveda Monroe led with 14 points. L.A. City champion Narbonne had two points by Kiana Angel.
In the boys’ game, Bishop Montgomery’s Lamond Murray, Jr. was named that contest’s Most Valuable Player after scoring a game-high 22 points to key the Southern Section stars pulled away from the L.A. City team, 91-65.
“It feels great,” Murray said of his MVP Award. “It was more of a fun game. These things don’t matter.”
Murray moves on to play for head coach Marty Wilson at Pepperdine University in Malibu.
Serra’s 6-foot-11 Emmanual Ndumanya had four points for the Southern Section. He was not the tallest player, though. That was 7-foot-5 Mamadau Ndlye, who had 12 points, including some spectacular slam dunks.
Ndlye is from Huntington Beach Brethren Christian.
Another player who scored in double figures was Elijah Brown from Santa Ana Mater Dei, the California State Open Division champion, with 18 points. Leland King (Brentwood) chipped in 14.
The L.A. City stars were head coached by Gardena’s Andre Hilliard, who guided the Panthers to the City Division II championship with a win over top seed Granada Hills Kennedy on March 2 at the Roybal Learning Center in Downtown L.A. and their first ever appearance in the Southern California Regional playoffs where they lost at home to Thousand Oaks on March 6.
“It was a great experience,” Hilliard said. “It was a lot of fun. It’s nice to end it with this.”
His Gardena player, Dushone Brown, contributed 10 points. The City stars were led by champion Westchester’s Matthew Grant with 14 points.
Jonathan Nichols of Narbonne also played but did not score.
