Central Coast Section Championship Standouts

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On Saturday March 1 PH NorCal saw 3 Championship Games DIII, DIV, DV. Here are the standouts from the games.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1983727' first='Isaiah' last='Ackerman'] 6'4 2025 G, Aptos: He's a talented prospect with some athleticism to go with his versatile skill set. At 6'4 he showed good guard skills using quality handles, while probing the perimeter looking for openings to get into the paint. He makes good decision with the ball, a willing passer, making strong passes cross court, and up in transition. He's got springs in his legs, getting good rise on a consistent mid-range, finishing dunks, and going after blocks.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1573501' first='Simeon' last='Brown'] 6'3 2025 F, Carmel: He's a hard charging guard with a strong body, and solid handles to attack the basket on every opportunity if he thinks there's an opening. He went strong to the basket in transition, hard along the perimeter. Being bumped doesn't bother the two sport athlete. He had a few post ups in the paint. 14.5ppg, 4.5R for the season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2335259' first='Hudson' last='Rutherford'] 6'1 2025 G Carmel: He played a good all around game putting points on the board with long 3ptrs, he found open players with good passing. He's got a good release pulling up for 3's along the perimeter, and coming down in transition. He dropped a couple of 3's with a hand in face. 12.5 ppg.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1253135' first='Warren' last='Blut'] 6'2 2025 CG, Carmel: Blut was the teams leading scorer with 17.5 ppg this season. He's a do it all type of player on this team. He has a good shot from behind the 3pt line, he can stop and pop a mid-range jumper. He shows toughness driving into the paint handling bumps and challenging shot blockers, or hitting the paint jumper. He made a couple of big shots down the stretch.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1572948' first='Soren' last='Roberts'] 6'7 2025 PF,C, Palma: He had good activity on the inside. He's a big body with room to add more muscle, and weight. He went after rebounds regularly, getting quite a few offensive rebounds. He showed patience gathering himself then going back up for 2+1. He used his dribble for baseline drives. He finished with 8 rebounds.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1826998' first='Xavier' last='Barnett'] 6'1 2026 PG, The King's Academy: A rising guard in the Class of 2026. He has the handles, vision, and ability to run a team. He's hard to guard when he goes into attack mode. He was dominant down the stretch, regularly making his way to the front of the rim, from different angles, using hard dribbles, body, and toughness. He's a top notch defender, he rebounds from the guard position.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1806767' first='DeMarco' last='Hunter'] 6'6 2026 F, Santa Cruz: He's averaging 25pts per game this season, he's been consistent. He's scoring in a variety of ways. He's showing good ball handling, passing, and decision making with ball in hand. He's taking on defenders with his dribble, finishing drives strong at the rim, including dunks. He's taking, and making good shots from 3 when open. What stood out most in this game was his effort going after rebounds, he had 10 in this game.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2352700' first='Teddy' last='Xanthopoulos'] 6'6 Forward, Priory: He's a productive prospect with good size, he plays with balance, makes good decisions with the ball. He doesn't force things, but will use his handles, balance, and spin moves from different areas to get closer to the rim. He rebounds, defends inside, he's a good passer. He averaged 13pts, 7R on the season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2484356' first='Boss' last='Mhoon'] 6'4 2028 G/W, The King's Academy: He showed good handles, body control, and long strides maneuvering his way to the basket on multiple occasions. We're not surprised he's showing his talents on the big stage. He's a top Freshman in NorCal, and California. We saw a versatile skill set that allows Mhoon to get buckets creating off the dribble, knock down 3's from the perimeter, and finishing shots in the paint area. He showed guard skills facilitating in the half-court with good passing and decision making. He got rebounds, led the transition break. He finished with a game high 22pts.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2441000' first='LJ' last='Legan'] 5'10 2027 SG. Santa Cruz: It's safe to say Legan is a 3pt shooter. They look to find him spotting up around the perimeter, in the corners, and coming down court in transition. He's always ready to receive, has balance. He hit a 3ptr from the top early boosting his confidence, then came a transition 3 where we saw a little hop to get himself balanced. He had good baseline drives, got a couple rebounds. He's a shooter with improving ball handling, and passing.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2686621' first='Tai' last='Suich'] 5'8 2027 PG, Palma: He's a fast guard with good handles, kind of shifty, not a lot of wasted dribbles. He had multiple drives to the basket putting the ball high off the glass over stretched out blockers. He split defenders multiple times to get floaters, and paint jumpers. He has lateral movement and quick hands. He will challenge bigs in the paint.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->