Sacramento’s top girls basketball player chooses her college. Where’s she going?

The top girls basketball player in the Sacramento area has made her decision.

Antelope High School guard Jzaniya Harriel announced her commitment to Stanford University on Tuesday. The senior-to-be averaged 25.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists and led her school to a Sac-Joaquin Section championship win over Del Oro at Golden 1 Center.

Sara James, a former Oak Ridge High star, is the last area girls basketball player to commit to Stanford, doing so in 2010.

“Committing to Stanford is a dream come true,” Harriel told The Sacramento Bee. “It means a lot to me because I told everyone that Stanford was my dream school and when I said it, my parents instantly told me that we were going to work hard to make that happen. My parents spent countless hours with me, training me, recording my games and watching film to make me a better player. So it feels great to set a goal and achieve it. It lets me know that all of my hard work paid off, although this is only the beginning and I have so much more work to do.”

Sean Chambers, Harriel’s AAU and high school coach, has been around girls basketball for more than 20 years. He recognizes this is a big deal.

“It doesn’t get any better (than Stanford),” Chambers said. “Sara James is living an amazing life as a nurse practitioner working at the Stanford Children’s Hospital. You are pretty much taken care of after you leave with an education from Stanford University, even if a basketball career doesn’t work out.”

She is definitely worthy of that Stanford education. Harriel carries a 4.75 GPA and aspires to be a judge after her basketball career ends.

“Academics played a huge role in choosing Stanford,” she said. “For me, academics come before basketball and I take my studies very seriously. Stanford is one of the very best schools academically and I know that I’ll get a great education there. The best part is that even though they are ranked high in academics, they still have amazing athletics. So I get the best of both worlds.”

Harriel said she sees herself bringing fairness to an unjust criminal system if she’s able to serve as a judge.

“My desire to be a judge began with my mom because she had wanted to study law herself, but didn’t get the chance to,” she said. “We would always watch shows and documentaries about criminal justice and forensic files that really pulled me in. But my passion for wanting to become a judge grew and got deeper as I matured. Growing up and seeing all of the injustices within our criminal justice systems really frustrated me. A lot of the time people aren’t given fair punishments for their crimes ... so I felt that the best way to make a difference was to become someone with that authority because I know that I would do my best to make the right decisions.”

Harriel has won Bee Player of the Year honors the past two seasons.

“What separates her from the rest is she has a win-at-all-costs mentality,” Chambers said. “She will do whatever it takes to win. There’s no game too big for her.”

In her prep career, Harriel has eclipsed the career 2,000-point mark. Chambers knows someone like Jzaniya has a chance to inspire the next generation of girls basketball players.

“Jzaniya has become a role model for girls in the Sacramento area,” Chambers said. “There’s not a kid from Sacramento or even the Bay Area who doesn’t know who she is. Jzaniya makes you raise your game against her. That’s what makes girls basketball in our area so great.”

Other national recruits to come out of the area include Sacramento High’s Victoria Baugh (Tennessee), Folsom’s Kenzie Forbes (Harvard), McClatchy’s Gigi Garica (Washington), Kennedy’s Lynette Johnson (Utah State) and Del Campo’s Danielle Viglione (Texas).

The area’s top-ranked boys player, Isa Silva of Jesuit, committed to Stanford last month.

“That’s incredible,” Chambers said about the area’s top boys and girls basketball player going to Stanford. “The two best basketball players from the area are both going to Stanford. It’s huge. We are making some noise here in Sacramento.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 1:09 PM.