Girls basketball Top 20: Dazzling Leilani Edinburgh leads charge for West Campus Warriors
John Langston could be a mad scientist, running an underground laboratory at West Campus High School.
Imagine the scene: The longtime girls basketball coach amid bubbling mixtures and scribbled calculations, creating a team out of moving parts.
Langston brewed up championship teams at Sacramento High School in the 2000s, then moved within the Sacramento City Unified School District to West Campus, where he put the right formula together to produce CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV championship teams in 2017, 2018 and 2019, punctuated by CIF state crowns in 2017 and 2018.
This season, the young Warriors are off and running again, seeking another Greater Sacramento League championship and another spirited playoff run behind a senior do-all guard in Leilani Edinburgh and a rising-fast supporting cast.
“We’re still learning, still getting better, but we can be really good,” Langston said.
Ranked 12th by The Bee, West Campus is 9-5 after starting the season 8-1 before falling to No. 4 Whitney 47-40 on Dec. 9 and losing three games against powerhouse, out-of-area competition in the prestigious West Coast Jamboree. The coach placed his team in that tournament to test them, to challenge them.
Edinburgh is well worth the watch, a 5-foot-1 point guard who is fundamentally sound and has a lot of flair to her game. She can dribble between her legs and behind her back and zip passes to teammates down the lane. She can score off the dribble or by jump shot. She averages just under 20 points per game while pulling down 3.3 rebounds, doling out 5.0 assists and making 4.1 steals.
Never mind her size. Edinburgh can guard wings, guards or bigs and is eager for any challenge. She is a four-year varsity starter, a campus scholar who dreamed of going to Yale to study but may stay local to play at a community college.
“She is our rock,” Langston said. “If you don’t guard her, or can’t guard her, she’ll score on you. With her and (Esabel Otsuji) and (Loismary Justice), we can be hard to defend.”
Otsuji is a junior guard averaging 10.0 points. She is a good 3-point shooter and ballhandler and a pest on defense. Justice is a 5-10 freshman post, learning on the fly. She is a natural at rebounding and running the floor.
Langston also has some freshmen players in his program who have never played the sport, but they are eager to learn. They work hard and listen to their coach/scientist.
“I never cut anyone,” Langston said. “I don’t mind losing a game as long as we’re learning how to play the game.”
West Campus defeated Valley 63-21 on Monday as Edinburgh produced 18 points.
Parry on fire: No. 11 Del Oro opened Sierra Foothill League action with a satisfying 56-47 victory at No. 13 Rocklin as Shaelyn Parry made 7 of 10 shots and had 21 points.
The senior guard made 7 of 8 3-point shots, guarded Thunder players with intensity, and came up with four rebounds and four steals. She still had enough energy to bear hug her father, Josh Parry, after the game.
He is the longtime Del Oro assistant football coach, a one-time NFL grinder out of Sonora, who jumps out of his skin in watching student-athletes compete to the point of exhaustion. And when he jumps, everything moves except his hearty beard.
“Love to watch her play,” he said, standing near the action.
Shaelyn Parry is a 6-footer who is strong enough to crash the boards and skilled enough to handle the ball, run the floor and shoot. She is averaging 12.6 points and 3.6 rebounds. Ysabella Von Seipler averages 7.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists for Del Oro as a 5-10 junior guard.
Jamiah juice: Jamiah Fontenberry of Inderkum is off to a fast start, and the same for her upstart No. 15 Tigers at 15-3.
The 5-10 junior guard had a 30-point, 15-rebound, seven-steal effort against Roseville as a relentless competitor. She is averaging 15.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.3 steals. Her coaches and teammates call her “Boss.”
“Remember her name!” Inderkum coach Michele Massari said with a laugh.
Lions roar: No. 2 McClatchy trailed visiting No. 10 Grant by 10 in the first half Monday night in Metro Legaue play, settled down, stopped committing fouls and took off for an 80-45 home victory.
The Lions have lost only to top-ranked Folsom on the local circuit. Nina Cain had 21 points, Norret Lewis 18 and Daisy Throckmorton 16. Cain is a 6-2 national recruit guard who can play in the post. Lewis is a 5-10 junior guard and Throckmorton is a 5-11 guard/forward.
The Lions cap this week with a game at decades-long rival Kennedy, ranked ninth.
THE BEE’S TOP 20
Girls
Records entering Tuesday
1. Folsom (11-3)
2. McClatchy (9-5)
3. Oak Ridge (14-4)
4. Whitney (13-5)
5. Colfax (14-1)
6. Christian Brothers (11-4)
7. Antelope (10-6)
8. Monterey Trail (9-7)
9. Kennedy (12-4)
10. Grant (13-3)
11. Del Oro (11-7)
12. West Campus (9-5)
13. Rocklin (12-5)
14. Vista del Lago (9-6)
15. Inderkum (15-3)
16. Lincoln (13-3)
17. Granite Bay (11-5)
18. Liberty Ranch (14-4)
19. Marysville (10-3)
20. Pioneer (17-2)
Bubble: Bear River (11-3), Cosumnes Oaks (11-7), Franklin (9-7), Ponderosa (12-6), Rio Linda (13-5), St. Francis (7-8), West Park (13-5), Woodcreek (8-9).