Roundtable names Walker, Rodriguez first Athletes of the Week of 2013

Posted: Jan 7, 2013 5:07 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Jan 7, 2013 11:08 PM

NSBCART names Walker, Rodriguez Athletes of the Week

Two Santa Maria area high school basketball players were honored on Monday for leading their teams to perfect 2-0 starts in Pac 7 League play.

The Northern Santa Barbara County Athletic Roundtable convened for the first time in several weeks to recognize the best of the best. The Roundtable named Righetti High's Cameron Walker and Pioneer Valley High's Ali Rodriguez its Male and Female Athletes of the Week.

Walker, a standout sophomore for Righetti, averaged 27.5 points in two games last week. He poured in 35 points in Righetti's 63-62 league opener at Paso Robles last week. Walker scored a game-tying three-point basket and the go-ahead bucket down the stretch. He also scored a team-high 22 points in the Warriors' 69-52 win over defending league champion Arroyo Grande. "Our last game went well against AG, we ended up beating them by 17. You know AG is a great team. You know we came out well, we played tough and it was a good win for us," said Walker moments after earning his first Athlete of the Week award.

Rodriguez, a senior guard, is a big reason why Pioneer Valley is off to its best start in program history with an 11-3 overall mark and 2-0 start in Pac 7 competition. Rodriguez earned Female Athlete of the Week after she scored 25 points, dished out 3 assists and collected 6 steals in the Panthers' thrilling 55-36 come-from-behind win over Paso Robles last week. "We were down by 19 in the first quarter and I think as a team we still weren't worried we were going to lose. We still had confidence that we were going to win. We ended up winning by 19," said Rodriguez, who also scored 4 points and had 3 assists in the Panthers' league-opening 56-49 win at San Luis Obispo last week.

Pioneer Valley hosts defending champion Arroyo Grande on Monday night, while Righetti plays across the street rival St. Joseph.