AURORA | Two senior standouts from undefeated Aurora girls basketball programs received nominations the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game Thursday.
Seven Colorado girls players made the list of nominees from 44 states and the District of Columbia for the 44th annual game — which won’t be played this year due to the coronavirus pandemic — and that group included Addison O’Grady of top-ranked Grandview and Avery VanSickle of Regis Jesuit.
In her fourth season as varsity player with Grandview (which is off to a 7-0 start), O’Grady — a 6-foot-4 post player — is second on her team in scoring average (16.8 ppg) and rebounding (6.0 rpg) and is tied for second with an average of 3.7 assists per game for coach Josh Ulitzky’s Wolves. O’Grady signed with the University of Iowa in the offseason.
VanSickle missed the first two games of the season for Regis Jesuit (8-0) as she recovers from injury, but she has averaged 10.8 points and 2.7 assists per game, which rank her second on her team in both categories. The University of Washington signee is still finding her shooting range, but has made 11 3-pointers to tie for first on coach Carl Mattei’s team.
Both Aurora programs had McDAAG nominees last year in Tomia Johnson of Grandview and Jada Moore of Regis Jesuit, though neither was selected.
Grandview and Regis Jesuit have had McDonald’s All-American selections in the recent past in Michaela Onyenwere and Fran Belibi of the Wolves and Raiders, respectively.
Onyenwere made the game in 2017 and is currently starring at UCLA — where she was an Associated Press Preseason All-American — while 2019 McDAAG selection Belibi is a regular on a Stanford team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation for a large portion of the season. Belibi won the PowerAde Jam dunk contest usually held in conjunction with the McDonald’s All-American Games.
The 24 players selected to the McDonald’s All-American Game will be recognized virtually later this month.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2021 COLORADO GIRLS MCDONALDS ALL-AMERICAN NOMINEES
Torrie Bass (Fountain-Fort Carson); KaCee Kyle (Cherry Creek), ADDISON O’GRADY (GRANDVIEW); AVERY VANSICKLE (REGIS JESUIT); Kindyll Wetta (Valor Christian); Maya Whiteside (George Washington); Abby Wrede (Cherry Creek)