Amalia Holguin, the last high school player that Kobe Bryant coached as part of his youth girls basketball team before his tragic death, scored 61 points on Tuesday night.
The Sage Hill High School senior played alongside Kobe’s late daughter, Gianna, on the team before their deaths and is now “the last active high school player he coached,” per the New York Post.
So it was only fitting that the Lightning senior channeled her inner mamba mentality and struck for 61 points — yes, sixty-one — burying an Orange County single-game record 14 three-pointers in a 101-26 dismantling of visiting Laguna Beach. By the time the third quarter ended, the record books were already smoldering. By the time she checked out, history had been rewritten.
Holguin’s shooting display broke Buena Park’s Isabelle Avalos’ county record of 13 threes set in 2020. She also reached the 2,000-point milestone for her career — all at Sage Hill — and did most of the damage before the fourth quarter even mattered. Magnolia’s Teresa Martinez still owns the county scoring record at 69 points, but this night belonged to Holguin.
The victory gave Sage Hill a 17-game winning streak, and the No. 1 ranked team in Orange County improved to 22-4 on the season. Holguin’s performance had Bryant’s fingerprints all over it.
Holguin’s future appears as bright as her past, and she will be playing for the Texas Longhorns after graduation. She previously led Sage Hill to a CIF State Division 1 final.
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube, Tubi, or Fawesome TV. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
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