Winning the CIF State Open Division championship is the highest achievement of California high school boys basketball. Sierra Canyon boys basketball has won a couple of Open Division championships, in 2018 and ‘19.

The Portola Valley-based Panthers boast a supersized front line led by 6-foot-8 Mate Palotai and 6-6 Teddy Xanthopoulos. They’re the only skyscrapers on the roster, but the rest of the Priory team

The Cardinals (30-6) and leading scorers Tegan Hayes, Siena Sorbello and Keziah Maldonado-Lemus will play a Rosamond team that is 29-7, is in its first CIF State final and is riding a 14-game winning streak. Shiloh Sorbello is the WC coach, a lawyer in Yolo County whose daughter, Siena, is among the team captains.

Holguin, the team’s last member of Kobe Bryant’s youth girls basketball squad, scores a game-high 21 points but Sage Hill struggles at the foul line.

Sophomore Amalia Holguin, the last of the Sage Hill players trained by the late Kobe Bryant, leads the SoCal team into title game against Carondelet.

In March of 2022, Amalia Holguin watched “as a fan” and dreamed of her chance as the Sage Hill girls basketball team reached the CIF State championships. Holguin was in the eighth grade that spring as four of her teammates from Kobe Bryant’s famed Mambas youth team helped the Lightning capture the Division II state title.