Watch: Sage Hill girls basketball looks scary in preseason win against Liberty (NV)
CYPRESS, Calif. - It's become a yearly ritual at the start of girls basketball season to fire off hot takes about how Sage Hill is about to have its best season ever.
In 2023, making such a claim is truly closer to picking low-hanging fruit than going out on a limb.
But with that said – Sage Hill is yet again about to pop off like never before.
Despite showing some rust and losing leading scorer and rebounder Emily Eadie (Princeton) to a rolled ankle in the opening minutes, the Lightning looked as scary as advertised on Oct. 7 at the H.O.P.E. Showcase, where they defeated Nevada heavyweight Liberty 42-16. Sophomore Amalia Holguin led all scorers with 10 points, and Kat Righeimer and Zoie Lamkin added nine points and eight points, respectively.
At the showcase, the reigning No. 4 team in the CIF Southern Section showed off what might be its biggest improvement from last season – its depth. Sage Hill leaned heavily on its starters last year in terms of both minutes and production, but now it has one of the more promising and physically imposing second units in SoCal.
The Lightning are counting on projected leaps from forwards Grace Bori and Alyssa Cuff, who improved with every week as the team's most utilized reserves in 2022-23. And there's new personnel. Sage Hill's bench now features 6-2 forward/center Aurora Elder, who averaged 16 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.2 steals, 2.0 blocks per game on 58-percent shooting as a junior at Riverside Poly, and freshman wing Kamdyn Klamberg, who's already upwards of six feet tall with D-1 offers.
Even without factoring in its drastically improved depth, Sage Hill was already set to take a leap with the exact same starting five. Why?
Because no rising senior core in SoCal improved more over the previous two offseasons than the group of Eadie, Righeimer (Northwestern), Lamkin, and forward/center Annabelle Spots (Chicago). From their pandemic-altered freshman season to their sophomore season just a few months later, and again from their state championship sophomore season to their Open Division junior season, they all made considerable individual strides. Plus, it doesn't hurt that their fifth starter, Holguin, is one of the premier sophomore point guards on the West Coast.
Quite a few of Southern California's most high-profile senior cores in recent years have failed to improve on their underclassmen seasons and had disappointing final acts. But Sage Hill's 2024 Class won't be one of them. Health permitting, the Lightning are set to keep making a name for themselves across not only the Southland but the whole high school girls basketball world.
– Lance Smith | lance@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveca
