Plenty of talent on the court. A list of potential Player of the Year candidates.

For weeks I’ve been writing about how the Central California Conference is wide open. Teams like Golden Valley, Merced, El Capitan and Pitman are going to slug it out.

Three games into CCC play and everybody already has at least one loss.

The Sun-Star Player of the Year looks like it also will be wide open with many worthy candidates.

As expected, Cyrus Allen is off to a great start in his fourth varsity season for Golden Valley despite some injury issues this year.

Jeremy Redwine has Merced thinking about a second consecutive CCC championship.

Saul Avitia has really improved and is leading Atwater in scoring.

With half of the season behind us, I thought it would be a good time to look at potential Player of the Year candidates and players fans should get out and see this season. We took a look at the girls on Tuesday. The boys take center stage today.

Cyrus Allen, Golden Valley

For four years opposing coaches have told their players to keep Allen from going left. The Cougars star still manages to get where he wants on the court. A sprained ankle has cost him a couple games in the last couple weeks, but he returned on Monday and scored 20 points to help GV knock off El Capitan in key CCC matchup.

Jeremy Redwine, Merced

The Bears run a lot of their offense through the 6-foot-5 Redwine. Another lefty who does a lot of his work in the paint. Redwine leads Merced in scoring and rebounding. The Bears big man has even improved his ability to take big men off the dribble. He scored 22 points in Merced’s season opener against Buhach Colony.

Kevin Alvarez, Livingston

One of the highest scoring players in the Area. Alvarez’s shooting range begins just about when he crosses half court. The senior leads the Wolves in scoring at 17.8 points per game. He poured in 31 points in a game against Hughson earlier this season.

Cameron Gomez, Los Banos

Gomez has put up some big numbers for the Tigers this season. The senior was named the Most Valuable Player after leading Los Banos to the championship of the Gustine Tournament earlier this season. He poured in 36 points against Livingston in the championship game.

Irik Dobbins, Buhach Colony

Dobbins is one of the few players who excelled on the football field this fall and is now doing well on the hardwood. He delivered the game-winning 3-pointer and scored 25 points in the Thunder’s upset over Golden Valley last week. He’s averaging 15.2 points per game.

Marcus McCutchen, El Capitan

I loved McCutchen’s game as a sophomore last year, but he had to fight to get time on the floor with a talented team. As a junior he has emerged as one of the Gauchos top players. McCutchen is great and finding his way to the basket and his length allows him to finish over big men inside. He’s averaging 12.7 points per game for El Capitan.

Saul Avitia, Atwater

The Falcons senior guard has raised his scoring average 11 points per game from his junior to senior year. Avitia is averaging 16-4 points this season. Avitia is averaging almost 2.5 shots from beyond the three-point line this season.

Etrell Bowers, Golden Valley

This 6-foot-4, 204-pound junior continues to improve. Bowers can score inside and outside with his ability to step behind the three-point line. He can also be a monster on the boards. Bowers came up big against Pitman without Allen, scoring 15 of his 18 points in the second half.

Other players could easily be included in this list. Devon Martinez has come up with some big games for Golden Valley and helps balance the offense as a slasher and shooter. Merced’s Xavier Stewart is one of the top defenders around, often asked to shut down the other team’s top scorer. Chowchilla freshman Ryan Hickman is one of best pure shooters, making 50 3-pointers in his first 16 games. El Capitan’s Angel Serena is the Gauchos floor general. His contributions aren’t shown in the stat sheet, but are reflected in El Capitan’s 14-5 record.

It’s going to be fun to see how this race shapes out. There’s a lot of talent in Merced County.

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Plenty of talent on the court. A list of potential Player of the Year candidates.."