The list of McDonald’s All-American Game nominees from across the country came out Wednesday and only a total of four players — three girls and one boy — from Colorado appeared on the list of more than 780 from across the country.
Two of the state’s three girls players come from Grandview its two Division I signees in Lauren Betts (Stanford) and Marya Hudgins (Santa Clara), who have combined to help the Wolves to a 3-7 record in the early part of the season against a grueling season.
Betts and Hudgins combined to help Grandview top Valor Christian — which features the state’s other girls nominee in Raegan Beers — last weekend (story, here).
The 6-foot-7 Betts, a Stanford signee who is the top-ranked player in the Class of 2022, is almost certain to become the program’s second McDonald’s All-American. She would join Michaela Onyenwere, who got selected in 2017 and went on to star at UCLA and was the Rookie of the Year in the past WNBA season while playing with the New York Liberty.
Regis Jesuit graduate Fran Belibi, Betts’ future Stanford teammate, is the only other girls basketball player from an Aurora program to make the McDonald’s All-American Game.
Betts missed the first three games of the season as she recovered from injury and is averaging 13.3 points, 10 rebounds and 3.6 blocked shots per game in the seven she has played in.
Hudgins recently passed the 1,000-point mark in career scoring and is currently the team’s leading scorer with an average of 16.1 points per game, while she has also collected a team-best 1.9 steals per contest thus far.
Grandview grad Addison O’Grady and Regis Jesuit graduate Avery VanSickle (plus Rangeview’s Cade Palmer on the boys side) were nominated last year — though the game was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic — but neither were selected.
Beers (who is averaging 19.8 points, 13.6 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game through 10) rounds out Colorado’s list of girls nominees, while Zach Keller — a Wake Forest signee who is averaging 18.5 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots — of undefeated ThunderRidge is the state’s lone boys nominee.
The 24-player rosters for both the boys and girls games will be announced during ESPN’s “NBA Today” show beginning at 1 p.m. MT on Jan. 25.
Fans can then tune in to the McDonald’s All American Girls Game on Tuesday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and the Boys Game immediately following on ESPN at 9 p.m. ET.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports