AURORA | Lauren Betts’ basketball resume continues to add line after impressive line.
The 6-foot-7 Grandview High School star added the title of McDonald’s All-American after she was part of the group picked to play in the March 29 contest at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago as revealed Tuesday afternoon on ESPN’s “NBA Today” show.
The McDonald’s All-American Selection Committee chose the rosters from a pool of nearly 800 senior nominees from 503 high schools in 41 states and the District of Columbia.
The McDonald’s All-American Games are set to return after they were canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, however the COVID-19 situation is being monitored and could change that. As of now, the games will be played consecutively March 29 at the United Center in Chicago with the girls game scheduled for 4:30 p.m. MT (televised on ESPN2) followed by the boys game at 7 p.m. MT on ESPN.
The 6-foot-7 Betts, a Stanford signee who is the top-ranked player in the Class of 2022, has averaged 14 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.6 blocked shots per game after missing the first three games for the Wolves. Grandview just returned from a two-game trip to Minnesota where it faced top of the top three teams in the country in De Soto (Texas) and Hopkins (Minnesota).
Betts and Grandview teammate Marya Hudgins made up half of Colorado’s nominations (boys and girls) for this year’s McDonald’s All-American Games, a group that also included Valor Christian’s Raegan Beers.
Beers (an Oregon State signee) also was selected and is part of the West Team along with Betts.
Zach Keller of ThunderRidge (a Wake Forest recruit) was the only nominated boys player from Colorado and was not selected.
Betts joins exclusive company as the third player from an Aurora girls basketball program to be selected as a McDonald’s All-American as she is the second all-time selection for coach Josh Ulitzy’s Grandview program following Michaela Onyenwere in 2017.
Onyenwere went on to an All-American career at UCLA, was taken by the New York Liberty with the No. 6 overall draft pick in the WNBA Draft and earned Rookie of the Years in her first campaign.
Regis Jesuit graduate Fran Belibi, Betts’ future Stanford teammate, is the final selection from an Aurora girls basketball program to make the McDonald’s All-American Game. She won the POWERAde Jam Fest in 2019 and played in the game, where she scored six points and pulled down 10 rebounds for the West Team, which also included another Colorado selection in Ashten Prechtel (Discovery Canyon H.S.).
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2022 MCDONALD’S ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS SELECTIONS
WEST TEAM
LAUREN BETTS (GRANDVIEW HIGH SCHOOL), COLORADO; Aaliyah Gayles (Spring Valley High School), Nevada; Ashlon Jackson (Hardin Jefferson High School), Texas; Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (Classen High School), Oklahoma; Flau’Jae Johnson (Sprayberry High School), Georgia; Gabriela Jaquez (Adolfo Camarillo High School), California; RAEGAN BEERS VALOR CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL), COLORADO; Isuneh Brady (Cathedral Catholic High School), California; KK Bransford (Mount Notre Dame High School), Ohio; Maya Nnaji (Hopkins High School), Minnesota; Ruby Whitehorn (Detroit Edison Public Academy), Minnesota; Timea Gardiner (Fremont High School), Utah
EAST TEAM
Kiki Rice (Sidwell Friends), Virginia; Janiah Barker (Montverde Academy), Florida; Ayanna Patterson (Homestead High School), Indiana; Paris Clark (Long Island Lutheran), New York; Talaysia Cooper (East Clarendon High School), South Carolina; Chance Gray (Winton Woods High School), Ohio; Ta’Niya Latson (American Heritage High School), Florida; Indya Nivar (Apex Friendship High School), North Carolina; Kyla Oldacre (Mason High School), Ohio; Justine Pissott (Red Bank Catholic), New Jersey; Grace VanSlooten (IMG Academy), Florida; Ashlyn Watkins (Cardinal Newman), South Carolina