Best High School Girls Basketball Player in Every State 2022: West

These are the best high school girls basketball players in every state headed into the 2022-2023 season for the western states.

Stadium Talk’s annual preseason list of the best high school girls basketball player in all 50 states is upon us, and we’re trying something new and exciting this year by dividing the stories up into regions and spreading them out over the next few weeks.

First up, we’re starting in the country’s western region, including the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Are you ready?

Alaska: Sayvia Sellers

Anchorage Christian School Guard Sayvia Sellers

XavierSoHoops / Twitter

High School: Anchorage Christian School (Anchorage, Alaska)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 5-foot-7

College: Washington (committed)

Bottom Line: Anchorage Christian’s Savyvia Sellers is one of the better girls basketball prospects to come out of Alaska in recent memory — a do-it-all guard who averaged 24.0 points, 6.1 assists, 4.6 rebounds and a whopping 4.5 steals per game as she led her school to the 2022 Class 4A state championship.

Sellers, who is committed to play for the University of Washington, was named the Class 4A All-Tournament Team and Class 4A All-State as well as sweeping the Alaska Gatorade Player of the Year and Alaska MaxPreps Player of the Year awards.

Arizona: Khamil Pierre

HoohallClassic / Twitter

High School: Perry High School (Gilbert, Arizona)

Position: Forward

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 6-foot-2

College: Vanderbilt (committed)

Bottom Line: Khamil Pierre had a breakout season as a junior, as she averaged 21.0 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.2 steals and 1.4 blocks on the way to leading Perry High to a Class 6A state runner-up finish.

Pierre is a forward who could be a star in the SEC sooner than later — she’s committed to play for Vanderbilt — and could pass 1,000 career points in the first game of her senior season. She’s currently sitting at 980 career points.

California: Juju Watkins

wslam / Twitter

High School: Sierra Canyon School (Chatsworth, California)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 6-foot-2

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Arguably the best girls basketball prospect in the country, Sierre Canyon guard Juju Watkins averaged 25.0 points and 10.6 rebounds as a junior as she led her school to the CIF Open Division state championship.

Watkins, who already has a NIL deal with Nike, was named California Gatorade Player of the Year and MaxPreps National Player of the Year in 2022. She’s also a frontrunner for National Player of the Year honors as a senior.

You can count on Watkins being a major player in women’s basketball for the foreseeable future — she was also named The Los Angeles Times Player of the Year as a freshman and led the Team USA U16 squad to the gold medal at the FIBA Americas Championships in 2021.

Colorado: Sienna Betts

CreatedbyKwalla / Twitter

High School: Grandview High School (Aurora, Colorado)

Position: Forward

Graduation Year: 2025

Height: 6-foot-3

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Sienna Betts teamed with older sister Lauren Betts to lead Grandview High to the Class 5A state championship in 2022. Now with Lauren off to play for Stanford, this younger sister has the stage to herself and is already rated as Colorado’s top girls basketball prospect and one of the top prospects in the nation for the Class of 2025.

Betts averaged 10.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 steals as a freshman — with numbers sure to go up as she shoulders more of the load this season. What’s unique about Betts is she can likely play three positions with ease — either forward spot or center.

Hawaii: Ledjan Pahukoa

1Roundball / Twitter

High School: Lahainaluna High School (Lahaina, Hawaii)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 5-foot-7

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Lahainaluna High guard Ledjan Pahukoa averaged 14.0 points as a junior on the way to being named to the 2022 Hawaii Prep World Top 15 squad — it was Pahukoa’s second time on the Top 15 after making it as a freshman for King Kekaulike High.

Pahukoa was a big part of Lahainaluna’s run to the Division I state semifinals in 2022 and made a big impression at the Area Code Games in the summer before her senior season.

Idaho: Avery Howell

averyhowell44 / Twitter

High School: Boise High School (Boise, Idaho)

Position: Forward

Graduation Year: 2024

Height: 5-foot-11

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Boise High’s Avery Howell has done a little bit of everything for her team over the last few seasons — she’s a two-time All-Southern Idaho Conference pick and was named SIC Defensive Player of the Year in 2022.

Howell is a ferocious rebounder and defender. She led Boise with 12.1 rebounds and 2.2 steals to go with her 10.2 points as a junior and saw her offers go through the roof in the summer before her junior season, with Minnesota, St. Mary’s and Oklahoma State to add to an offer she already held from Boise State.

Montana: Jada Clarkson

JClarkson_3 / Twitter

High School: Capital High School (Helena, Montana)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 5-foot-7

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Capital High’s Jada Clarkson was named the Western Class AA Offensive Player of the Year in 2022 after she averaged 17.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists. It was Clarkson’s first year playing for Capital after transferring from tiny Whitehall High, where she played her first two seasons.

Clarkson, who has an offer from The Masters University, also passed 1,000 career points as a junior.

Nevada: Ali’a Matavao

wslam / Twitter

High School: Liberty High School (Henderson, Nevada)

Position: Forward

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 6-foot

College: BYU (committed)

Bottom Line: Liberty High’s Ali’a Matavao is one of several players headed to play college basketball at BYU who made this list after being named Nevada Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior in 2022.

Matavao averaged 13.1 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.1 steals and was also named Class 5A Player of the Year and MVP of the Page Arizona Holiday Classic. Matavao also had offers from San Diego State, Hawaii, Cal State-Fullerton and Utah Valley State.

New Mexico: Taejhuan Hill

PGHNewMexico / Twitter

High School: Volcano Vista High School (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

Position: Forward/Center

Graduation Year: 2024

Height: 5-foot-11

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Taejhuan Hill has helped lead Volcano Vista to back-to-back state championships her first two seasons and was a Class 5A All-State selection in 2022, as she averaged 12.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.9 steals.

Hill could be queued up for a breakout season as a junior in the 2022-23 season after playing alongside a pair of fellow All-Metro picks in graduated seniors Natalia Chavez and Jaelyn Bates the last two years.

Oregon: Jazzy Davidson

AndrewNemec / Twitter

High School: Clackamas High School (Clackamas, Oregon)

Position: Guard/Forward

Graduation Year: 2025

Height: 6-foot-1

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Clackamas High’s Jazzy Davidson was named the Oregon Gatorade Player of the Year as a freshman — an unbelievable feat in any state — after she averaged 22.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.1 steals, 2.7 assists and 1.4 blocks in leading her school to the Class 6A state semifinals.

Davidson, who had nine double-doubles, was named the Mount Hood Conference Player of the Year and is currently ranked as the No. 1 girls basketball prospect in the nation in the ESPN HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings.

Utah: Amari Whiting

SportsLifeU / Twitter

High School: Timpview High School (Provo, Utah)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 5-foot-10

College: BYU (committed)

Bottom Line: Amari Whiting won’t actually ever play a game for Timpview High, but we needed to include her on this list — she swept the Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year and Idaho MaxPreps Player of the Year awards as a junior at Burley High before moving to Utah after her mother and high school coach, Amber Whiting, was hired as the head women’s basketball coach at BYU.

Whiting, who tore her ACL and will miss her entire senior season, averaged 26.9 points, 10.5 rebounds and 5.7 steals as Burley went 25-1 and won the Class 4A state championship in 2022. Originally committed to play for Oregon, Whiting flipped her commitment in July to BYU.

Washington: Malia Samuels

maliasamuels232 / Twitter

High School: Garfield High School (Seattle, Washington)

Position: Point Guard

Graduation Year: 2023

Height: 5-foot-6

College: USC (committed)

Bottom Line: Malia Samuels led Garfield High to a second consecutive Class 3A state championship as a junior in 2022, and the No. 1 recruit in Washington in the Class of 2023 picked USC out of a bevy of Division I offers.

Samuels is a true point guard, averaging 16.5 points, 6.3 assists, 6.1 steals (!!!) and 3.4 rebounds as a junior.

Wyoming: Bradie Schlabs

Cheyenne East High School

High School: Cheyenne East High School (Cheyenne, Wyoming)

Position: Guard

Graduation Year: 2024

Height: 5-foot-6

College: Uncommitted

Bottom Line: Bradie Schlabs has helped lead Cheyenne East High to back-to-back Class 4A state championships as a freshman in 2021 and sophomore in 2022 — Wyoming’s largest division — and was named Class 4A All-State both years. Schlabs was also named the Class 4A Defensive Player of the Year in 2022.

Cheyenne East went 28-0 in 2021-22 and 21-2 in 2020-21, bringing Schlabs’ career high school record to 49-2. And get this, the school is currently on a 39-game winning streak.

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