She rewrote the record books. Now she’s Idaho’s top girls basketball player.
Mountain View junior Naya Ojukwu earned the state’s all-class player of the year award Thursday as the 2020-21 Gatorade Idaho Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
The 6-foot junior power forward led the Mavericks (20-2) to a repeat 5A state championship in February, averaging 24.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 1.3 steals and 1.1 assists per game.
She also set a 5A state tournament scoring record with 87 points (29 per game), breaking the previous record held by Mountain View grad Destiny Slocum, now a WNBA rookie with the Las Vegas Aces.
“Naya is the most dominant player in Idaho, hands down,” Boise coach Kim Brydges said in a news release. “She’s kind of next level all the time. Any guard who throws it in her vicinity, she grabs it. If you don’t box her out, she’ll hurt you. Without a doubt, she is the player of the year.”
The all-class Gatorade award adds to Ojukwu’s postseason haul. She was also voted the 5A All-Idaho Player of the Year by the state’s coaches.
Ojukwu maintains a 3.39 GPA and has volunteered locally as a youth basketball coach, a Special Olympics referee, a church camp leader and a youth minister.
Previous winners include Boise’s Peyton McFarland (2019-20), Mountain View’s Darian White (2018-19), Post Falls’ Melody Kempton (2017-18), Centennial’s Tori Williams (2016-17) and Slocum (2015-16, 2014-15).
This story was originally published May 27, 2021 at 2:15 PM.
