Girls' Basketball Co-Player of the Year: SSF's Brittney Cedeno

“Leaving a private school to go into a public school, I feel like no one know knows where they’re getting into,” Cedeno said. “The seriousness isn’t always there. But when I got in to South City, you could tell the passion and the seriousness was there. So it was a gamble, but I’m glad I took it.”

Prior to Cedeno’s arrival, South City had never won a CCS championship. During Cedeno’s elite varsity career — during which she earned three straight Peninsula Athletic League North Division MVP honors — that finally changed.

“Her legacy is obviously that of a winner,” South City head coach Paul Carion said. “Basically, in this day and age, everybody is thinking they need to go private school. She proved you can go to a public school and be successful and have a team that is very successful.”

It might seem peculiar that her being relegated to crutches for the CCS championship game is what clinched her a share of her second career Daily Journal Girls’ Basketball Player of the Season award. But Cedeno — who also earned the solo honor in 2015-16 — was as essential to the program’s first-ever CCS crown in 2017-18 as anyone.

Sure, the Warriors had to do without their team leader in points (16 per game), steals (six per game), assists (five per game) and a vaunted rebounder (averaging six boards per game). As it turned out, though, the most important number in South City taking home the title was 12 — as in the number of players the team had on roster.

Just two years prior, Cedeno’s first foray into the public-school arena, the Warriors carried just nine players on roster, with only seven actually contributing consistent minutes.

“That was one of the secrets of our success that we could go 12 deep this year,” Carion said. “And a lot of that is because we’re getting more players, better players that are coming to South City … and a lot of that is [Cedeno] came her and was able to succeed. And they say, ‘Hey, I can go there and succeed.’ And they’re coming over.”

So South City put forth a tremendous display of team basketball to come back against Aptos for a 60-50 win in the CCS Division III championship game. Senior center Jerlene Miller demonstrated the best longevity of her career, recording a double-double, including what was for her an unprecedented 19-foot jumper midway through the fourth quarter to give the Warriors a two-score lead for good.

Cedeno’s replacement Alex Salise earned Daily Journal Athlete of the Week honors for her gutsy effort, driving to the hoop with such tenacity and power that Aptos finally resorted to triple-teaming her, a strategy that left Miller open for the momentum seizing 19-footer.

Just go down the list: 5-6 sophomore Lafu Malepeai totaled three rebounds, all in fourth-quarter clutch situations; senior Val Avila opened the fourth by rattling home a 3-pointer to give Sotuh City breathing room at 50-44; senior Kayla Jew — who Cedeno called this year’s most improved player — scored 11 points, including three straight fourth-quarter free throws from getting fouled beyond the arc.

Don’t overlook the bench contributions: Junior Becca Tasi in the first half, when the Warriors really needed a spark, scored two straight buckets to leverage a 17-17 tie; senior Neveah Miller had three key offensive boards, including two in the first half to help turn a 31.4 percent team shooting clip prior to the break into a mere 36-31 deficit; and junior Karizma Bergesen, providing valuable post minutes, set a personal best by far for minutes played in a game.

Team basketball at its finest.

And front and center was Cedeno, anchoring one of the sideline seats generally reserved for an assistant coach. It makes sense. That’s precisely the role she took on, a role she had been refining since she was named team captain as a sophomore.

Emotional in those early days? Sure. But my, oh my, has she become a force as a motivator, a strategist, and a mentor.

“Her desire to win was always there,” Carion said. “And at times she had a hard time understanding everybody else wants to win as bad as her. But sometimes they’re not capable of doing the things she would like for them to win.

“But also the level of her teammates raised … they started raising up to her level,” Carion said. “And she found ways to challenge them. Instead of speaking up in frustration, she would step up and challenge them in positive ways.”

Not to glance over her game. On the court, Cedeno is a show, in and of herself, every time she takes the floor. Right hand? Left hand? It doesn’t matter. She can drive circles around pretty much any defender 1-on-1. She can pass. She can board. She can J. She can take over a game and put a win away as seamlessly as anyone in the county, hence the Warriors’ PAL tournament championship win this season.

Cedeno’s final two plays in that victory against Menlo-Atherton were testament to her versatility. With 50 seconds left and South City trailing by 1, she drove a lane and through a crashing triple-team weaved a bounce pass in step to Tasi, who scored and drew a foul for an and-1. And after M-A center Greer Hoyem — with whom Cedeno is sharing Daily Journal Girls’ Basketball Athlete of the Year honors — scored an and-1 at the other end, Cedeno fired back with nine seconds to go to convert as graceful a 10-foot jumper as you’ll ever see to give the Warriors the lead for good.

“We gave her the ball both times in the same situation and she made the right decision in both situations,” Carion said. “There’s not a lot of players who can do that.”

Now, Cedeno will follow in the footsteps of her older brother Michael Smith, himself a former Daily Journal Basketball Player of the Year in the boys’ arena out of El Camino. Smith went on to play at Cal Baptist where he set the Division II program’s all-time leading scoring record.

Next year, Cal Baptist is being promoted to Division I. And while Cedeno — on a full athletic scholarship — will have to wait until her junior year until the program is eligible for the postseason (the promotion comes with a mandatory two-year playoff embargo) she already has a notion of helping build another unprecedented contender.

“I feel like it’s all part of a master plan,” Cedeno said.