Atwater basketball star named CCC Most Valuable Player by conference coaches
It was a special season for Atwater High junior Colton Dukes.
The Falcons guard surpassed 1,000 career points and helped lead the Falcons to a second consecutive Central California Conference championship.
Dukes can add another accolade to his resume.
The conference coaches selected Dukes as the CCC Most Valuable Player.
“That’s great for him,” said Atwater coach Kanoa Smith. “He’s done so much for us. He rarely comes out of the game. He led us in points, rebounds, steals and deflections. Besides assists and taking charges, all those big things we look for, he does that.”
Dukes averaged 19.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game that helped the Falcons win a share of the CCC championship with Merced and El Capitan.
“He made it hard for me to take him out of the game,” Smith said.
Dukes says earning the respect of the other coaches in the conference is an honor.
“It means a lot to me,” Dukes said. “It means they view me as the best player in the league. It shows all the work I put in paid off.”
The Falcons had to win their final three CCC games to earn their share of the championship.
“It’s definitely something we talked about and was one of our goals since the beginning of the season,” Dukes said. “It was special last year to win our first title in forever. To win back-to-back is amazing. It shows we can be more of a basketball school. It shows we can produce winners.”
The all-CCC first team selections were Atwater’s Tyler Parr, El Capitan’s Brody Collins, Will Bain, Golden Valley’s Mateo Tangaan, Merced’s Jaylen Thao-Booth and Seth Mays-Meneley and Patterson’s Precious Nnaji.
Merced’s Adrian Sanchez was chosen as the CCC Coach of the Year.
The second team was comprised of Atwater’s Cameron Frazier, Buhach Colony’s Brock Richards, Central Valley’s Jordan Powers, El Capitan’s Edrian Figueroa and Patterson’s Kwame Appiah.
Judah Flores (BC), KJ Ross (Atwater), Gage Mastropierro (CV), Greg Mack (EC), Isaiah Taylor (GV), Roman Buendia (Merced) and Jacob Guevarra (Patterson) all received honorable mention.
The all-sportsmanship team was comprised of Parr, Richards, Yoshi Kumar (CV), Tyler Minor (EC), Braden Castleton (GV), Javis Saeteurn (Merced) and Guevarra.
