Notes: Amoura Whitney wired into leading turnaround at Cimarron-Memorial
Computers fascinate Cimarron-Memorial senior Amoura Whitney.
Basketball is going to ensure she learns all about them.
Whitney accepted a full scholarship in October to Morgan State, a Division-I school in Baltimore where she intends to study computer engineering, pursue a career at Google and play a little basketball.
The 5-foot-6-inch guard is one of the most well-rounded prospects in Las Vegas, and she’s galvanizing the Spartans, who are in the midst of their best season in at least a decade.
“She’s never experienced a winning season since she’s been in high school,” Cimarron coach Malcolm Griffin said. “Now that we’re starting to win, she’s buying in. That’s what she’s about. Winning and being a good teammate.”
Raised by a single father, Whitney was inspired to play basketball by her older brother and started competing at the school formerly known as Agassi Prep before transferring to Becker Middle School.
She started in 2014-15 at Cimarron, where she established herself as a standout student and a top perimeter player.
Whitney’s dad, Regenall, said he encouraged Amoura to pursue athletic and academic endeavors.
“I always told her ‘You can use your (athleticism) and your mind to fund your education,’” he said. “She followed (the plan) to a tee.”
Weber State was the first school to recruit Whitney, and other Division-I and Division-II programs followed throughout the course of her prep career.
She built her own highlight packages and teamed with her father to distribute them to universities, ultimately picking Morgan State in the fall.
Whitney said she’s always been drawn to technology and enjoys creating things on the computer — an ideal building block for her prospective major.
“If something is wrong with a computer, or we couldn’t fix it, I would just go into it,” said Whitney, who has a 3.7 grade-point average. “I guess you could say I’m really computer savvy.”
She’s basketball savvy, too.
Whitney is averaging 9.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals for Cimarron (12-4) this season while serving as the team’s top perimeter defender.
Griffin insists she doesn’t care about her statistics.
Just winning. And turning the Spartans into a contender in the Northwest League and the state.
“Other schools (came) into our gym, and they’re like ‘This is going to be easy.’ … That makes the atmosphere at school worse,” she said. “Somebody can change that. A team can change that.”
Whitney is changing that.
Green Valley wrestlers claim Las Vegas Classic
Green Valley’s wrestling team scored 180.5 points to claim the Las Vegas Holiday Classic last week at the South Point Arena. Gators individual champions included Steele Dias (115 pounds), Will Zenrich (122) and Justus Scott (154).
Other local champs were Spring Valley’s Ryan Mitchell (108) and Andres Garcia (134), Cimarron-Memorial’s Amado Castellon (140), Foothill’s Wyatt English (147) and Faith Lutheran’s Connor Bourne (184),
Centennial girls check in at No. 9
Centennial’s girls basketball team checked in at No. 9 in the latest edition of USA Today’s Super 25 rankings. The Bulldogs (13-2) won the Las Vegas Holiday Classic, defeating Etiwanda (California) in the championship game behind 32 points from Justice Ethridge.
Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.
