Sierra Canyon proves it’s the top girls team in California with ‘storybook’ ending
CHATSWORTH, Calif. (BVM) – Sierra Canyon girls basketball head coach Alicia Komaki knew her Trailblazer squad was probably the most talented group she’d ever coached long before the 2022 CIF Open Division playoffs tipped off.
Judea “Juju” Watkins, the No. 2 player in ESPN’s Super 60 in the Class of 2023, transferred from Windward to Sierra Canyon before the season to join an already-talented team led by sophomores MacKenly Randolph (daughter of former NBA star Zach Randolph) and Izela Arenas (daughter of former NBA star Gilbert Arenas). Despite the abundance of talent, Komaki knew the road to accomplishing their ultimate goal would be anything but easy.
“They are definitely the most talented team that we’ve had at Sierra, but the crazy thing is, with all of that, we’re still not favored to win a championship,” Komaki said back in early February. “We’re really good, we’re really talented and have all the right pieces, but we still have a team (Etiwanda) in our division that’s undefeated and No. 2 in the country.”
Sierra Canyon got its first crack at Etiwanda just three weeks after Komaki made those remarks and a matchup between two of the best girls basketball teams in the state didn’t disappoint. But despite leading 44-41 after three quarters on February 26, the Trailblazers were outscored 28-13 in the final frame of the CIF Southern Section Open Division title game, resulting in just their second loss on the season.
Komaki and her crew had little time to sulk — less than a week, to be exact — before the CIF Open Division playoffs began. The road to another state title began with a dominating, 94-50 win over Cathedral Catholic which earned Sierra Canyon its first opportunity at revenge.
The Trailblazers’ first loss of the season came on January 8 to a star-studded La Jolla Country Day School squad. Consensus five-star Breya Cunningham and four-star UCLA commit Jada Williams combined for 42 points to hand Sierra Canyon its first blemish, but the Trailblazers got the last laugh.
The two powerhouse programs met again in the regional semifinals nearly two months later but it was Sierra Canyon who came out on top with a nail-biting, 63-62 victory which meant the rematch was on.
The Trailblazers met Etiwanda for the second time in as many weeks in the regional final and once again tasted revenge. Watkins scored a game-high 29 points to knock off the top-seeded and previously undefeated Eagles.
With its only two losses of the season avenged, Sierra Canyon rolled through Archbishop Mitty, 85-61, in the CIF Open Division state championship to claim its fifth state title.
All work. No hype! #OurLegaSCy @CIFState pic.twitter.com/Sau4mlvBnu
— Sierra Canyon Girls Basketball (@sierracanyongbb) March 14, 2022
“The whole thing is a storybook, not just the ending,” Komaki said. “The two losses we had on the year were to the two teams we got to play on the road after coming off a disappointing loss where ultimately we kind of, in a way, blew that game against Etiwanda the first time. So we got to redeem ourselves which is awesome and then it all culminated in a state championship which is pretty cool.
“It was just like the perfect story. If somebody were to write a movie, it’d be a pretty good one.”
The star of that movie would likely be Watkins who followed up her 29-point performance in the regional final with a dominating 23-point, 19-rebound double-double in the state title game to go along with six assists, six blocks and three steals.
Just three days before putting on a masterpiece in the state championship, Watkins was named the 2021-22 Gatorade California Girls Basketball Player of the Year, the first ever from Sierra Canyon.
“Juju Watkins is the best player that I’ve seen this year, by far,” Crossroads School head coach Ryan Wilde said in a Gatorade press release. “She has tremendous skill and she’s very competitive and driven.”
Watkins’ immense skill is evident when you watch her play, but so is her competitive drive. It’s that competitiveness that Komaki believes separates her, and the fact that she “doesn’t get nervous, she thrives off of pressure.”
“Her lines throughout all of the playoffs, even going back to CIF pool play, were ridiculous,” Komaki said of Watkins. “Even game to game with the more important it got, the more locked in she was and you could just see it in her face.
“It’s not even really a matter of being nervous or being excited, it’s just how focused she is on winning a championship. When you see that in your star player’s eyes in the locker room before a state championship game, you feel like you’re in good hands as a coach.”
Since the CIF didn’t hold state championships in 2021 after canceling them at the last minute in 2020, Sierra Canyon is now the back-to-back CIF Open Division state champions after knocking off Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) in the 2019 Open title game.
Komaki has now won five CIF state championships in 10 years at the helm and while five coaches have won more than five state titles, she’s the first to win five in her first 10 seasons. The Trailblazers went back-to-back-to-back from 2013-15 and are now once again atop the California girls basketball mountain.
💍 5-0 @iamkomaki pic.twitter.com/fB5WfAIp8g
— Sierra Canyon Girls Basketball (@sierracanyongbb) March 14, 2022
The Sierra Canyon coaching staff went to a celebratory dinner this week and one of Komaki’s assistants brought up a compelling fact: every young lady who has played under Komaki at Sierra Canyon without transferring in or out has won a state championship.
“It’s pretty cool to say that, for the most part, 95% of my players have won a state championship which is really, really cool,” Komaki said. “The more state championships that we win as a program, it really becomes about ‘I hope I get this group a state championship and I’m going to do whatever I can to win for the teams that we have.’”
The quest for No. 6 will certainly be in play next season when Komaki welcomes back Watkins, Randolph, Arenas and all but one senior. Expect the Trailblazers to begin the 2022-23 season as the No. 1 team in the state and nation.
